


In Which Truth Would Rather Not be Eaten, Father is Mad About That, and Ed Would Like To Know What the Hell a 'Host Club' Is

by LaurenKing



Series: In Which Souls are Swapped, People are Traumatized, and Everyone Has To Deal With That [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Bodyswap, Crossover, Disfigurement, Gen, Loss of Limbs, Mutilation, Sharing a Body, Truth is a dick, basically nothing above 'hell', canon compliant swearing, gets dark at chapter 16, just does not stop for anyone or anything, my favorite kind of Kyoya, relentless antagonist, soul swap, why do I hurt the characters I love, yay for Anxiety Kyoya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2019-06-07 18:49:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15225639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaurenKing/pseuds/LaurenKing
Summary: On the Promised Day Father tries to gather the sacrifices, only for a few not to appear. Turns out, transporting them through Gates of Truth allowed ‘God’ to stack the deck against him (after all, why would they allow a plan that would get them eaten?)Ed soon wakes up with his soul shoved in the body of a certain Princely Type host. Trouble ensues as everyone tries to figure out what the hell is going on and how to get everyone back where they belong.---Otherwise known as 'What the Hell is a Host Club' for brevity's sake.Updates may be slow because of some irl turmoil, but I will be seeing this one through to the end! Right now I'm focusing on actually writing the dang thing, not polishing it. I have edited each chapter a little, but a few spelling/grammar mistakes may have slipped through. I do plan to edit the whole thing properly once I've finished, but don't want to get bogged down going over old chapters rather than posting new ones.





	1. Broken Promise

The plan for the Promised Day had been progressing smoothly. Of course, the humans had been running around, doing their best to interrupt things at every stage. Even so, Father hadn’t been worried. Then he had tried to summon the sacrifices.

The key word being ‘tried’.

He was missing two of them, which was… troubling. It would be a problem if they had died or figured out how to stop themselves from being brought to him. After all, he had shown his hand to too many people. To be surprised by a trump card right at the tipping point of the game would be a nuisance, to say the least.

* * *

  _The Truth of the matter is, I’m a little bored of getting eaten and watching him get defeated over and over. Experiencing All at once makes things get old quickly. So I’m going to make a little exchange of my own._

* * *

The first thing that Edward Elric noticed was an unusual feeling in his arm and leg. They lacked the usual heavy, numb weight of his automail. Not only that, they seemed somehow longer than usual. It was halfway through drowsily trying to figure out why that was when he noticed that he was lying in a _ludicrously_ soft and warm bed. Certainly not like any bed he had ever slept in before.

With a confused sound he sat up, looking around. The room was large and ornate, painted in pastel pinks and light golds. More worrying than the tacky decorating was the fact that he had never seen the room before. He had no idea where he was. He supposed he would just have to investigate.

Getting up was easy, in theory. He had done it thousands of times before, after all, and in various states of disrepair. Although Edward, of all people, should have known the difference between theory and practice. Because in practice, all he managed to do was get his strangely-too-long limbs tangled up in the blankets that surrounded him. Even when he did manage to flounder his way out of bed, he ended up stumbling the second his feet hit the floor. It wasn’t until he found himself halfway across the room, leaning heavily on some fancy desk, that he noticed what was wrong.

The tiles were cold against his feet. Both of them. He could feel the cold in _both_ limbs.

“What the hell is going on around here?” he mumbled to himself, too shocked to raise his voice to a shout. He collapsed to the floor, staring dumbly at his leg. He reached out with a trembling hand to inspect it, only to pause when he realized his hand was similarly changed.

Gripped by a sudden moment of panic, Edward slammed his hands together, picturing the array needed to construct a simple bat. With a crackle of blue energy and a little borrowed matter from the wall beside him, the weapon was sitting solidly in his grasp. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least that hadn’t changed.

He put the bat aside, shakily climbing to his feet using the desk as support. Another glance around the room revealed a huge mirror covering the wall opposite to him, allowing him to get a good look at himself. Or, rather, _not_ himself, since that certainly wasn’t _his_ reflection.

There were similarities, of course. The blonde hair was the same, though it was a different shade and much shorter than it should be. Honestly, that was where the similarities stopped. His eye colour, build, height, everything was different.

_Height_. He was _tall_! A grin crept over his face, making him look far more like himself, as he took a step closer to get a better look at himself. That grin disappeared when his step turned to a stumble, which quickly turned to a fall. “Damn it… Now that I’m finally tall… I don’t know how to use these damn long legs!” he snapped, rolling over and staring at the ceiling. He could just hear Al teasing him about it. ‘Careful what you wish for, brother!’ he’d say.

Wait. Al. Where was Al? Was he nearby? Edward had gotten so distracted by everything that was suddenly different about him that he had forgotten he was supposed to be investigating his surroundings and figuring out what was going on!

He stumbled to his feet, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to stay upright long enough to open the door. The hallway was just as needlessly big and fancy as the room he had woken up in. He groaned a little in frustration at the idea of making his way around the stupidly big house he had found himself in, but pushed himself to keep going, anyway.

It wasn’t long before he was spotted. “Master Tamaki?” someone called from upstairs. She ran down to him, holding up the hem of her weird apron-and-dress combo so it didn’t get in the way. “Master Tamaki, you look unwell!”

Ed paused for a second. Obviously, if the girl thought he was this ‘Tamaki’ guy, then that was who he looked like. It would be easier to figure out what the hell was happening if he tried to blend in. “Oh- um- y-yeah, I’m… not feeling great,” he said, _really_ hoping the fact he sounded just like himself didn’t give him away. Either the girl wasn’t paying attention or he sounded enough like ‘Tamaki’ to fool her.

“Oh dear! I’ll inform the school immediately!” she said, picking up the nearest phone. “You just head on back to bed and rest, Master Tamaki. You look like you can barely walk!”

Damn it. He had blended in well enough, but he hadn’t counted on being sent back to that room. He couldn’t just go wandering around with the girl look at him like that, it would be suspicious! With a defeated sigh, he made his way back to the room he had woken up in and started pacing the best he could. If he couldn’t look around, he could at least get used to walking again. He knew from experience to get anywhere he would need to be able to walk on his own two feet. Even if those feet weren’t really _his_.

 

“Sick, you say? How unfortunate,” Kyoya sighed. Tamaki’s absence always marked at least a thirty-one percent drop in profits for the Host Club. Not that the other hosts were incapable of bringing in guests. There was just something about Tamaki…

Kyokay frowned, making a note of Tamaki’s absence in his book, as well as writing out a few possible ways to make it up to the girls who had booked time with him that day. Perhaps giving them reduced prices on the newest calendar or special event tickets? He would have to re-shuffle the entire schedule, not that he wasn’t used to having to do that to accommodate Tamaki. At least there was a real reason for once, rather than an idiotic scheme for the sole benefit of someone else.

He had to wonder how sick Tamaki really was. Knowing the inconsistent King of the Host Club, he could have anything from a sniffle to a life-threatening illness. With Tamaki’s maid refusing his offer to send a doctor from his father’s nearest hospital, Kyoya had no way to tell.

Oh well. At least the Host Club would be easier to keep in line for the afternoon. All he had to do was keep the twins from pulling any of their cruller tricks, make sure Honey didn’t eat them into debt, and keep anyone from discovering Haruhi’s secret, and everything would be fine. Without Tamaki’s antics on top of that, it would be a nice, quiet day.

Though, there was something to be said about how interesting those antics could be. He had to wonder when Tamaki would return.

Kyoya made a note to check on him that afternoon, once club activities had finished.


	2. Damn Rich People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Host Club is concerned, Ed goes for a stroll, and some secrets are discovered.

If there was one thing that could be said for Edward Elric, it was that he was quick to adjust to things. Within the hour, he had managed to figure out how to walk in his new body. He wasn’t going to be doing any fighting anytime soon (hopefully), but he could get around without stumbling. That would have to be good enough.

Unfortunately, since he wasn’t as agile as he would like to be, he wasn’t able to avoid the sudden onslaught of medics and servants that insisted on keeping him in bed. It took almost all day to get them to leave him alone, and the whole time they were there he was sure that someone would see through him and discover he wasn’t the ‘Tamaki’ guy they had mistaken him for. Obviously walking around out in the open wasn’t an option.

“Well, looks like I’m going to have to be a little sneaky!” he said to himself with a wide grin. He pressed his ear against the wall for a moment, checking to be sure that there was no-one in the room on the other side. With his alchemy still available, it wasn’t too hard to just transmute himself another door and leave the room that way. “Now, time to find Al and figure out what the hell’s going on around here!”

 

Kyoya had planned to visit Tamaki’s house alone but, as usual, the Host Club seemed to have collectively decided to defy him (not counting Haruhi, who had returned home to study). At least he could be sure that Tamaki would enjoy the attention. Or he would, were Tamaki actually in his room like he should be.

According to the maid who had found him that morning, he had been acting strange and having difficulty walking, so he couldn’t have gotten far. What was troubling, though, was that no-one had seen Tamaki leave. It wasn’t like him to be that subtle, and the staff should already have been used to every escape plan that fool had.

And to add to all of that, the other hosts wouldn’t stop _moving_ , making it rather hard for Kyoya to anxiously sketch his surroundings. It was bad enough that Tamaki’s little disappearing act was making him nervous, but on top of that his favorite coping mechanism was only adding to his distress. How was he supposed to act calm and collected in those conditions?

With a frustrated frown, he switched from sketching to note-taking.

> \- No sign of a break-in or a break out. Tamaki’s uniform still hanging in his closet.  
> \- Hitachiins investigating the bed (unmade, nothing unusual). Questioning location of ‘the boss’.  
> \- Haninozuka by the door, in tears. Questioning the safety of ‘Tama-chan’. Mori

Kyoya was about to add his usual note about Mori standing by Honey, keeping an eye on him, but that wasn’t what was happening. Mori was crouched down by the wall, glaring at it as if it had stolen Honey’s last cake.

“Did you find something?” Kyoya asked as casually as he could, moving over to see what Mori was looking at. There was something off about that wall. They weren’t exactly cracks, since they were far too even and rectangular to be that sort of damage. It was strange, to say the least.

Mori was silent for a few seconds before standing up. “Nothing important.” He moved back over to Honey, which should mean that all was once again right with the world. Kyoya wasn’t so sure, though. Something was distinctly _off_ about him.

Before he could figure out what it was, one of the twins interrupted his train of thought. “Looks like the boss just ran off,” he said with a nonchalant shrug.

The other twin mirrored the action. “It’s not like that’s anything unusual for him.”

“I suppose…” Kyoya said in his usual non-committal tone. “The only worry is that he has left his cell phone on his bedside table. While that explains why he isn’t answering it, that doesn’t bode well.”

“Kyoya…” Honey whined, tugging at his sleeve. “Is Tama-chan gonna be alright?”

Kyoya’s first answer was likely not as comforting as Honey wanted. However, a quick glance around the room showed him that the others were looking to him for comfort. Not the wisest decision, in his opinion, but he supposed he could indulge them, if only to get them to go home so that he could investigate more thoroughly.

“I’m sure he’s just run off and forgotten to tell us his latest big idea. He’ll be back for tomorrow’s club activities,” he assured them. That seemed to be the overwhelming opinion among the staff, so echoing the sentiment would at least be consistent with the comfort of others who were actually good at that sort of thing. Thankfully, it worked. All Kyoya needed to deal with then was his own worry.

 

It had taken Edward longer than he would have liked to search that house, mostly because it was _way too big_. Whoever that ‘Tamaki’ he kept hearing about was must have been a posturing idiot to own a place like that. Hell, one of the rooms had nothing in it other than a phone and giant portraits of some other guys that Ed hadn’t really paid much attention to. It was such a waste of space!

His frustration wasn’t helped by the fact that Al was nowhere to be found, and neither was any recognizable map. The next stop would have to be the closest library. If he couldn’t find Al, he would have to just trust that his brother was alright until he got his bearings and could start searching properly.

Wherever he was, it sure wasn’t anywhere in Amestris. As he wandered around the streets, keeping an eye out for any signs of the type of building he was looking for, he took in the sights and tried to adjust to the weird architecture and technology around him. It was hard to tell what most of it was, really. The sooner he got to a library, the better.

Without any knowledge of the area, though, he ended up just heading toward wherever his intuition told him was the right direction. As he walked the buildings got smaller and closer together, and the streets grew a little more crowded. That was around the time he realized that he hadn’t bothered to change out of the pajamas that he had woken up in.

“Ah, damn it… Now what am I gonna do?” he asked himself. Honestly, his plan had been pretty foolish from the start. Everything looked so unfamiliar that he might have walked right by whatever sort of library the land had.

By the time he came to the decision to turn back, he had stopped in front of someone’s door in what looked like a residential district. He didn’t recognize the home, but it was far enough out of his way that he must have walked there for a reason. Before he could even consider knocking, the door opened.

“Don’t worry, Dad, I just need a few ingredients for dinner. I’ll be back before it gets dark,” the person who opened the door called over his shoulder. He took a step outside before he turned to face the way he was walking, leading to him running face-first into Edward’s chest. “Oof-! Huh? Senpai? What are you… doing…?”

Ed took a step back, hesitating. He was at a complete loss as to how to react.

The guy looked him up and down with a small frown, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “You’re not Tamaki. Are you some sort of impersonator?” he asked.

“Uh… not exactly,” Ed replied, stalling for time. Well, he supposed if his cover was blown he may as well ask for some help. “Actually, I just sort of woke up with everyone calling me ‘Tamaki’ and ended up here. Maybe you can help me out? I don’t even know where I am.”

The guy was quiet for a few moments, but his expression made it clear that he was less than pleased with the interruption. Despite that, he sighed and gestured for Ed to follow him. “If you’re going to stay for dinner, you can at least help me carry the groceries.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Haruhi is still a girl in this one but since Ed hasn't figured that out yet and the last section is in his POV I've used male pronouns for her. I'm going with the anime interpretation where she just doesn't care much about gender but still thinks of herself as a girl.


	3. Secrets Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Haruhi learns about her new friend, Edward learns where to find a library, and a certain observer learns he's not as alone as he thought.

Honestly, Haruhi was sort of going back and forth on the issue of the identity of the person she had met at her door. On the one hand, he certainly looked like Tamaki, there was no doubt about that. He was identical in every way. Plus, he was absolutely lost when it came to anything to do with the supermarket. On the other hand, he hadn’t referred to anything as a ‘commoner’s’ version of something he had in his high-society life. That and, despite how clearly confused he was, he had been quietly observing the whole time rather than loudly making a complete fool of himself. Sometimes he had commented on things, but what he commented on and how he did it didn’t match Tamaki’s usual… ‘enthusiasm’ at all. For example, he had seemed shocked at the automatic doors to the supermarket, and had muttered to himself as if trying to figure out how they worked for a few minutes afterward. It was almost certain that Tamaki had encountered something a simple as an _automatic door_ before.

The next surprise came at the frozen food aisle. Haruhi tried not to buy too much frozen food, but it was always a good idea to keep some in the freezer for her dad, in case club activities kept her at school too late to cook anything. Not that he _couldn’t_ cook for himself, but she wanted to be sure there was something there that would be easy for him after his long day at work.

She had been trying to decide between a frozen chicken meal and a frozen fish meal when the guy (Edward, he had called himself) picked up one of the frozen fish meals and looked it over. “So you can just buy a pre-prepared meal here, and keep it frozen until you need it, huh? Reminds me of military rations,” he said to himself.

 _Military rations?_ Haruhi wondered. That was just another thing to ask him about. Until then, she should probably just do her best to make conversation. If there was one thing the Host Club taught her, it was how to talk to people. “Oh, you can’t keep them for too long. They’ve got an expiry date right here, see? You don’t have to throw them out once they hit that date, but you shouldn’t keep them too far past it. These are all getting close to their expiry date, so they’re half-off.” She looked back at the two frozen meals in her hands. “I guess that means my budget covers buying both of them…”

“That’s… the year…?” Edward asked, his voice shaking.

Haruhi paused, trying to figure out what was bothering Edward about the year. “Yeah… It’s 2002. Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh, yeah, just fine!” Edward said, his voice notably higher from stress.

“... We should head back. I have everything I need anyway,” Haruhi said, thinking it might be a good idea to get Edward somewhere less public if he was going to freak out.

 

“An alchemist. From 1915,” Haruhi repeated, just to be sure she heard that right. Edward seemed to have calmed down as he talked, as if saying it out loud had helped him sort it out in his head. Haruhi, on the other hand, was _freaking out_. “Nope. No way.”

“I’m telling the truth...” Edward whined.

“Last I checked ‘alchemy’ isn’t even possible, and time travel _really_ isn’t possible. I don’t think there’s much truth in claiming to be some magic-gold-maker from ninety years ago,” Haruhi said. “Maybe you _think_ you’re telling the truth, but it’s just not reality.”

Edward huffed, sitting back down and crossing his arms. “I’m not ‘some magic-gold-maker’. Making gold is illegal anyway. I only did it that _one_ time…” he grumbled. Less than a second later, he perked right back up again. “Wait! I can prove it! Do you have any broken pottery, or a radio, or something like that?”

“Uh… I dropped a mug yesterday,” Haruhi said, getting up and finding the mug. It wasn’t really all that broken, the handle had just fallen off, so she had decided to keep it instead of throwing it away.

Edward grinned, clapping his hands together. Blue energy arced between his hands and the mug and, with a flash of light, the mug was suddenly whole.

“What the hell?!” Haruhi said, grabbing the mug. She turned it over in her hands, looking for some sort of trick or something that could explain how the mug was suddenly fixed. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find anything. “This is… _real_ ?!” She had gotten used to a _lot_ of crazy stuff in her time, but nothing as crazy as _actual magic_.

“You mean you really don’t have _any_ kind of Alchemy here?” Edward asked.

Haruhi slammed the cup down and stood up. “Of course not, because that’s _crazy_!” Before Edward could respond, a soft knock at the door interrupted the conversation. Haruhi glanced between Edward and the door. “You didn’t invite any more weird magicians over, did you?”

“It’s not _magic_ , it’s _Alchemy_ ,” Edward corrected her. “And no. Like I said, I don’t know anyone around here.”

Haruhi paused for a moment, but eventually got up to answer the door. “Who else would be visiting at this time of night, then?” she muttered to herself as she opened the door. She couldn’t tell if she was relieved that it wasn’t some magician or annoyed that it turned out to be Kyoya.

“I apologize for the late hour, Haruhi, but I’m wondering if you’ve seen Tamaki anywh…” Kyoya started, trailing off as he looked past Haruhi into her house. “Come to think of it, I should have searched here first.”

“Oh, Kyoya, that’s not-” Haruhi started to correct Kyoya’s assumption, but Edward quickly cut her off.

“Wow, looks like you found me!” he said with an uncertain grin, looking around for some way to escape. “Well that was a nice dinner but I should probably be getting home!”

Kyoya crossed his arms, frowning and raising an eyebrow at Edward. “Before you do that, would you mind explaining why you left your home without so much as getting changed or informing me of your whereabouts?”

 

Edward was still for a moment, wondering what the hell he was supposed to say. Was there any point in keeping up appearances if he had already told Haruhi everything? Though, looking at Kyoya, he got the feeling he wanted to keep his cards close to his chest. “I, um… just… really wanted to see Haruhi?” he lied.

Kyoya was still for a moment before sighing. “Well, I suppose that’s just like you, isn’t it?” he sighed, walking in without an invitation and sitting next to Edward. “I understand that you were sick earlier this morning. They say the one you go to while feverish is the one you care for most, you know.”

Haruhi sat down as well, apparently deciding to play along for the time being. “We all know Tamaki would run to himself, anyway.”

“Perhaps he just wanted his precious ‘daughter’ to look after him,” Kyoya said with a sly smile.

Edward jumped a little. “Wait, Haruhi, you’re a-?!” He slapped his hands over his mouth before he could finish that. If ‘Tamaki’ called Haruhi his daughter for whatever creepy reason, then of course he would already know that Haruhi was a girl.

Kyoya stared at Edward with an unreadable expression.

‘H-he’s still feverish,” Haruhi said with a nervous laugh. “I would have called, but you know how Tamaki can be. If I left him alone for more than a few seconds he started whining that I was ignoring him.”

Kyoya stayed silent, looking between Edward and Haruhi. “... In any case, he can’t stay here. We have his reputation to think of.”

“Just what are you implying…?” Haruhi grumbled.

Kyoya ignored her. “Tamaki, I have a car for you out front. Rest, or you won’t be well enough to attend school tomorrow. Everyone was worried about you, so I expect you to be your usual foolish self by then, to set their minds at ease.”

Once again, Edward considered abandoning the whole ‘Tamaki’ disguise. The only thing keeping him from doing so was the fact that, for the time being, he didn’t really have anywhere to sleep other than Tamaki’s house. He just had to lay low for a little longer, until he figured out how the hell to get back to his own home.

 

As it turned out, sneaking out of Tamaki’s stupidly big house had worried all the people that worked there. Edward had to sit through all of their fussing, as well as a few lectures, before he was ‘allowed’ back in Tamaki’s room. It had been tough, keeping his mouth shut through all of that, but the promise of a warm meal and a place to safely collect his thoughts kept him quiet. Besides, if he tuned out all of the people yelling at him, he could use that time to plan his next move. He hadn’t gotten around to asking Haruhi about the location of a library, but there would probably be one at whatever school he was supposed to be attending. If he used that as a sort of central location, he could fan out from there and work out the rest as he went along.

With that figured out, he didn’t feel too bad about relaxing for the night. If there was one good thing about being mistaken for a rich person, it was that he got to eat pretty well, take a warm shower, and rest in a warm bed.

He was just about at that last part when he became aware of someone else in Tamaki’s room. It occurred to him then that there were certain downsides to being mistaken for a rich person, too. One of them being assassins. Ordinarily he would be confident in his ability to fight off a single attacker, but he wasn’t so sure how fast he would be able to move as he was. Even so, he was a little too proud to call for the staff that was supposed to be keeping him safe.

“I know you’re there. I’m gonna give you one chance to back off before I _make_ you,” he said, focusing to try to see if he could figure out where the person was. _Feels like they’re… behind me, a little to my left,_ he thought.

A single footstep from that direction confirmed it. “You know, for once, I’m glad to see you, Fullmetal,” a familiar voice chuckled.

Edward spun around, eyes wide with shock. “Colonel? What the hell are you doing here?” Ed was pretty sure that was Mustang, anyway. He wasn’t nearly as old, and was taller than the Colonel. Other than that, he looked a lot like a younger version of himself.

“I could ask you the same question,” Mustang said. “Do you remember what happened before you woke up here?”

“No… not a thing,” Edward said. Once he got over the shock of it, he was pretty relieved to have someone he knew with him. “Every time I try to think back, my memories of the last few months are all hazy…”

“Mine as well,” Mustang said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “How long have you been here?”

Edward sighed, flopping down on the bed. “I just woke up here today.”

Mustang nodded. “Thought so. I’ve been here for a week, and managed to keep a low profile just by staying quiet. Though, from what I’ve observed of Tamaki, you’re not going to be able to do the same. He’s almost as much of a nuisance as you are, so he’ll be hard for you to imitate.”

Ed chose to ignore the insult. “So, you figured anything out yet? Like how to get home, or where we are?”

Mustang was quiet for a minute or so. “I can’t find Amestris on any map, either current or historical. For all I know, our country never existed here.”

“So you’re saying-?”

“As far as I can tell, we’ve ended up in some sort of alternate reality, and I don’t have the first clue on how to get back,” Mustang said with a nod. “But… I noticed you can still use your Alchemy, Fullmetal.”

Ed sat up a little. “And you can’t?”

“I can, but without my gloves…”

“So you’re saying you’re totally useless?” Ed said with a wide grin. “Mr High-and-Mighty has to rely on someone else for once instead of giving out orders like you know everything?”

“Big words from someone who apparently couldn’t even _walk_ this morning,” Mustang snapped. “I can do Alchemy if I have time to draw the array, but my specialty is a little far removed from reality-hopping. Even if I _did_ have my gloves, it’s not like I can burn our way back home.”

Edward lay back down, staring at the roof. “I wonder what’s going on back there, anyway…? I hope Al’s okay.”

Mustang looked away with a small hum of agreement. It was obvious that he was thinking about Lieutenant Hawkeye.

“Let’s just get back there as fast as possible,” Edward said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I promise that next chapter will be almost exclusively in the FMA universe, because I finally figured out what the heck is going on there!
> 
> \---
> 
> EDIT: Okay so as it turns out I'm finding it really, *really* hard to write Tamaki, which is why the next chapter is taking so long. Sorry about that! I'm trying to push through.


	4. The Fate of Amestris

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tamaki rapidly flips in and out of shock, Bradley is a little tense, and the author struggles to write for the princely type.

“Well, this certainly isn’t the _strangest_ dream I’ve ever had, but it’s close,” Tamaki said, studying the massive stone door in front of him. There wasn’t much else to study in the vast white expanse he had found himself in.“Solid stone, hm? That would have taken some time to carve.” Most of the symbols were a mystery to him, but he had studied enough Latin to know what a few of the phrases etched around the symbols meant. “Mater est scriptor locus… But that would mean-!”

Suddenly, the door was gone, replaced by some strange silhouette of a person. “You two really are alike, aren’t you? Completely unable to let go of your sentimentality,” the silhouette laughed.

Looking closer, Tamaki was sure that the silhouette was of himself, if he ignored the far-too-large mouth. “Alright, now this _is_ the weirdest dream I’ve ever had,” he said to himself, moving closer to inspect the silhouette.

It seemed a little taken aback by the action, though Tamaki took no notice of that. After a moment it once again grinned widely. “A dream? Hahaha, I should have expected as much. I wonder how long you’ll believe that?”

Before Tamaki could ask what it meant by that, he heard the sound of stone grinding against stone behind him. He had just enough time to look over his shoulder and wonder why the door from earlier was somehow _behind_ him and opening before something shot out of it and latched onto his ankle.

“Ah- w-wait a moment-” He pulled against the thing, but was unable to keep himself from yanking his leg from under him and dragging him toward the door. “Wait- no-!” He clawed at the ground, reaching out toward the silhouette. “H-hey, a little help?!”

The silhouette watched with a grin, sitting completely still as Tamaki was dragged back toward the door. It ignored his pleading, watching the stone gate slam shut behind him.

 

Tamaki twitched and groaned, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. He had suffered through nightmares before, but that one was almost painful. His head was stuffed up as if he had been asleep for days, and his limbs felt way heavier than they should be.

“This must be how Kyoya feels in the mornings…” he mumbled to himself, putting a hand over his face. It felt strange, though. Confused, Tamaki finally opened his eyes, only to find himself looking up at some weird robot hand. He watched the fingers curl and uncurl a few times as it slowly dawned on him that the arm he was looking at was connected to his own shoulder. “Um…?”

“Brother! You’re awake!” someone in a huge suit of armour cried. Before he knew it, Tamaki was swept up in a tight hug.

“I- I’m sorry, I think there’s been some sort of mistake…!” Tamaki wheezed. “I don’t have a brother.” There was a _lot_ more than that wrong with the situation, but that was the first thing that Tamaki’s stalling mind could think to address.

Whoever was in the armour pulled away, staring sadly at him. Tamaki wasn’t aware that armour could look so disappointed, but apparently it was possible. “Oh… You’re… someone else, like Colonel Mustang, right?”

Looking at that sad face, Tamaki was tempted to lie. The trouble was, he didn’t know enough to make it convincing. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about,” he admitted. “Who are you? And where are we?” Tamaki looked around, starting to get suspicious. The low ceiling, as well as the lack of windows and obvious staircase nearby made it clear that they were in a basement of some sort. Had he been kidnapped again? That was always a bother. He was sure that the club and his adoring fans would be worried about him if he didn’t show up to school.

Tamaki focused back on his possible captor as he started talking again. “I’m Alphonse, and this is Greed’s hideout,” he said, putting Tamaki down. Tamaki leaned against the wall, finding it hard to keep his balance otherwise.

“Ah, I see,” Tamaki said, sitting down. So it really _was_ a kidnapping, then. Which meant all he had to do was sit tight and wait for a rescue, no matter how restless the idea made him.

Alphonse fidgeted for a moment before asking, “Um… if you’re not Brother, then… would you mind telling me who you are?”

“Eh?! What kind of kidnapper doesn’t know who they’re kidnapping?!” Tamaki yelled, entirely forgetting his plan to attempt to keep quiet.

Alphonse jumped, looking panicked. “Kidnapper?! I didn’t kidnap anyone!”

A door beside Tamaki (one he hadn’t noticed, since it was set into the wall he was leaning on) opened suddenly. “Who’re we kidnapping?” asked the man that walked in. He was wearing a black jacket and a dangerous grin that marked him as someone likely to be in charge.

“No-one!” Alphonse snapped, the hint of a frustrated whine in his tone.

“Aw, come on, I could use something other than rescue missions and food runs,” the other man laughed. “We’re completely wasting my skills here!”

Another pair entered from the same doorway, both of them wearing what looked to be a uniform. The man was remarkable in how unremarkable he looked, other than his clear blindness. Behind him stood a blonde woman with a sniper rifle strapped to her back and one hand on the man’s shoulder to guide him into the room.

“I would hardly call it a _waste_ , Greed,” the woman said. “The people down here need food. There’s no way they’ll be able to escape if they’re starving.”

Greed scoffed, but otherwise ignored the comment. “Anyway, now that Ed’s up and kickin’ we can start fighting back, right?”

“He’s… not Brother,” Alphonse said quietly.

“Aw, really?” Greed sighed. “So Father screwed up his soul, too?”

It was then that it clicked. “Now I get it!” Tamaki said, laughing with relief. “I’ve heard of this before. It’s called ‘LARPing’ right? I’ve heard it’s very big in Europe these days. I would have been happy to play along if you had just said so!”

Everyone seemed stunned for a moment. Tamaki supposed that they didn’t know what to do when someone broke character. He was about to ask them to explain the rules before he started to play, but was interrupted by the blind man slowly making his way over to him.

“... Tamaki?” he asked.

Tamaki froze. He knew that voice. “M-Mori? That’s, uh… quite a costume you’ve got there. Are those contacts?” he asked weakly. It didn’t look like a costume.

“No. This body is blind,” Mori said solemnly.

Trembling, Tamaki’s gaze slowly moved from Mori’s eyes down to his own arm, which was getting hard to ignore. He opened and closed his fingers a few more times, watching the metal bend back and forth with just a thought. “... This is some sort of joke, right?” He slid down the wall, only just noticing that one of his legs was a similar sort of metal construction. “It’s gotta be the twins messing with me, r-right?”

Mori sighed, crouching down next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “No, it’s not.”

The woman who had entered with Mori sat down in front of Tamaki with a firm stare. “Tamaki, right? That’s what Mori called you? My name is Riza Hawkeye, and I’ll be protecting you until we can figure out how to get you back home. Can you take a deep breath for me.”

Tamaki did his best, but it was a little hard to breathe through his rising panic. “A-anything for a maiden such as yourself,” he said. The flirting was a weak attempt to fall back on something that made sense.

Hawkeye didn’t seem amused. With a huff, she slapped Tamaki across the face. “We don’t have time for this. Tamaki, Can you fight?”

Tamaki drew back a little, his hand over his cheek. The feel of the metal on his skin almost sent him back into shock, but he managed to answer the question. “N-no.”

“Do you know how to handle a gun?”

“I- I’ve been to a firing range once or twice, but-”

With a sigh, Hawkeye took a handgun from her belt and shoved it into Tamaki’s hands. “That’ll have to do. Hopefully you won’t have to use this.”

As if the words themselves had summoned bad news, someone took that moment to burst in, covered in blood. “L-Lieutenant! He found us! The Fuhrer- He’s killing everyone!”

“Damn it… How many made it to the escape tunnels?” Hawkeye asked.

“I- I don’t know, there was so much blood…!” the man said. As he talked, Alphonse helped him lie down, pulling some bandages from his armour and trying to stop the bleeding.

Hawkeye glanced between Mori and the door that the man had come from, clearly frustrated. “Greed, I need you to protect the civilians.”

Greed laughed, breezing past her with a grin. “Yeah, sure, whatever. As long as that means I get another crack at Fuhrer-King Bastard!”

“Just don’t get yourself killed,” Hawkeye sighed before grabbing Mori’s shoulder and pulling him toward the door they had entered through. “Come on, we need to go. You too, Tamaki.”

Tamaki jumped, his awareness crashing back down on him. He had shut down at the thought he might need to actually shoot someone. He hadn’t shot anything other than cardboard targets before. Of course, he had been shooting those targets with the understanding that he may need to defend himself one day, but back then it hadn’t felt even remotely possible.

He stumbled to his feet, almost tripping over the metal one. It was so heavy! After a single step he already knew that he wasn’t going to be able to run with it. “Um… This could be a _slight_ problem…!”

“Come on, we’ve got to hurry!” Alphonse said, picking Tamaki up and rushing to follow Hawkeye.

 

Bradley was frustrated, to say the least. It wasn’t that Father’s plan had failed, he couldn’t care less about that. It wasn’t even that Father had given the order for him to hunt down and slaughter the people of Amestris (or, those who escaped the Immortal Legion after they had been turned loose on the world). If he was being honest, killing them was a huge weight off his shoulders. Tearing his unearned kingdom to pieces, sometimes quite literally, didn’t bother him one bit. There was only one thing on his mind.

Sometime during the chaos, he had lost track of his wife and ~~son~~ Pride. Before, his wife being in the hands of Mustang’s band of idiots hadn’t been a problem. As foolish as they were, they seemed to be on top of things. He had known his wife would be safe with them, even if he planned to execute them for taking her later. However, with the Immortal Legion running rampant above ground, he couldn’t be sure of her condition anymore. He was sure the remaining humans would have evacuated her with the rest if they could, but they may have been overrun before they had the chance.

At least he didn’t have to worry about ~~Selim~~ Pride. No matter where he had ended up, he would survive easily enough. He wasn’t fragile like humans were. Though, not all humans were as fragile as the ones he was cutting through. One of them stood in the middle of the crowd, parting them like a rock a stream.

“Ah, Scar,” Bradley said, his tone warm and pleasant as if they were meeting in some sunny park rather than a stinking sewer pipe, ankle-deep in water that ran red with blood. “I was hoping to find you here. I believe we have some unfinished business.”

“Yes. From what I recall, you retreated before I could destroy you,” Scar said, sliding one foot back and preparing himself for battle.

Bradley frowned a little, his jovial attitude disappearing in an instant. He had indeed had to ‘retreat’ before killing Scar in order to answer Father’s call. It was _maddening_. “I had another appointment,” he said. “However, there’s been a recent opening in my schedule. Let’s not take too long, though. I have to clear out some vermin soon.”


	5. A Different Kind of Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a battle plan is executed, an escape is attempted, and something else is executed too.

Ordinarily, Bradley would just rush forward and overwhelm his enemy, putting them on the defensive. Unfortunately, he was still wounded from his battles during the Promised Day. He could heal faster than a human, but not as fast as regular homunculi. Though it seemed, from the way he was holding himself, that Scar was still injured as well.

Bradley began to walk forward, watching Scar for his reaction. The enemy didn’t move. What was his plan? “Are you really going to sacrifice yourself to defend the enemy of your people?” Bradley asked. He had thought he understood Scar’s motives. Simple, wrathful revenge was easy to decipher. But his actions on the Promised Day, defending the people of Amestris…

“These people are not my enemy. They are more victims of the massacre you started fourteen years ago,” Scar said.

Ah, so it was still revenge, then. Just redirected revenge. That made a little more sense. He supposed that-

Before he could finish the thought, something beneath his feet exploded, filling the air with dust and debris. Without being able to see Scar, his Ultimate Eye couldn’t predict his movements, but Scar was predictable enough that Bradley didn’t need his eye’s help. He ducked just as Scar’s dashed through the smoke, arm extended in an attempt at a killing blow. Bradley sliced upward with his swords, intending to gut the man on the spot, but Scar managed to jump back just in time. Bradley didn’t give him any time to recover, slashing at him in an attempt to push him back toward the smaller tunnels, where there was less room to dodge. At the last moment, he became aware of another explosion, one that would have taken his lower half right off. He and Scar jumped back in opposite directions, both of them narrowly avoiding the blast.

Once again, Bradley found himself having to dodge through a cloud of dust, relying on his own instincts rather than his eye to figure out where Scar would strike next. He jumped over Scar as the man dove at his leg, turning in mid-air to slice open Scar’s back. The Ishvalan stumbled, but refused to fall. Once again, they entered another round of melee, which was once again interrupted by an almost-unseen explosion.

Bradley had to wonder how it was he couldn’t see the explosions coming until right before they happened, even with his Ultimate Eye. They couldn’t be land mines, since he knew he could spot those a mile away. Even explosive charges were enough of a threat that he eye noted them before he was even close to them. The only explanation was Alchemy of some kind, making it so that the explosives came into being right before they activated. Meaning Scar had an ally hiding somewhere nearby, but out of Bradley’s line of sight so that he couldn’t predict their movements.

Even so, the smokescreen didn’t do much to make it harder to dodge Scar. True, Scar had done quite a bit of damage last time they fought, but Bradley never lost a rematch. He had already deciphered all of Scar’s patterns.

Scar broke through the dust once again, attacking from behind rather than a frontal assault. Bradley sidestepped the attack and flicked his sword toward Scar’s throat.

“Not so fast, asshole,” snapped a horribly familiar voice. Bradley felt his sword shatter against something. The dust cleared, revealing Greed standing there, one Ultimate-Shielded arm raised to block the killing blow. “I’ve got a bit of a score to settle with you.”

“Ah, Greed. You’re not still angry about those henchmen of yours, are you? Or are you honestly trying to defend these humans? Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more pathetic,” Bradley said.

Greed laughed, slowly circling around Bradley so that he and Scar were on opposite sides of him. “As if I give a shit about them. But this is the second time you’ve come to my hideout uninvited. I’m not just gonna keel over this time, old man.”

Bradley chuckled, drawing one of his spare swords and keeping one pointed at both of his opponents at all times. “Well, I’ve never passed up an opportunity to kill you before. I see no reason to start now.”

“Just remember who won last time!” Greed said, lunging forward. Bradley half-turned, keeping Scar in his peripheral vision as he dodged Greed’s strikes. That neiucance had only gotten faster and more agile since he started coasting on the Xingese prince’s talent. Not only that, but he was staying on Bradley’s left side, where he was most injured.

Things only got more complicated when Scar re-entered the fray, having taken the distraction Greed provided to catch his breath. It only took a second for Bradley to adjust, but that second was filled with at least three close calls and no chance to back away and assess the situation. All of that was only made worse by another sudden explosion throwing more dust in the air.

“The last one’s through!” called a shrill, grating voice. A child ran around the corner, calling to Bradley’s opponents. “Mr Scar, Greed, let’s go!”

Before Scar or Greed could move, Bradley dashed forward. In half a second, he had both swords at the girl’s throat.

 

_ Shit, _ Greed thought, a strange feeling filling his chest, somehow completely weightless and far too heavy.

“Mei-!” Scar gasped, starting to run forward.

“One more step and the girl dies,” Bradley warned him. Scar skidded to a stop. For a moment, everything was still besides the bloody water rushing around their feet. Everyone was watching, waiting to see what everyone else would do.

That feeling kept growing.  _ Not again… _ Greed thought.  _ I’m not going to let this happen again… _ He could almost see the bodies of Roa and Dolcetto floating, face down and in pieces, in the water.

“I’m not bluffing, Greed,” Bradley said, cutting a little into Mei’s neck. Greed jumped a little, realizing that he had taken a step forward.

_ Trying to kill off the competition, Ling? _ Greed thought.  _ I knew you wanted to rule, but I didn’t think you’d go that far. _

He could practically feel Ling rolling his eyes.  _ If I was in control, Greed, you would know about it. That was all you. _

As much as he hated the idea, he knew Ling was telling the truth. Which meant that, for some reason, he wanted Mei alive. With that figured out, Greed focused on how to get to what he wanted.

“Mr Scar,” Mei said, trembling a little. “Look after Xiao-Mei for me, okay?”

“Wait, Mei, what the hell are you thinking?!” Greed snapped. She had the same look that the old man had. Before Gred could take a step, Mei swiped a foot over the ground, using the blood that had run down from her neck to draw a transmutation circle. The tunnel she and Bradley in started glowing. At least twenty of Mei’s long-distance transmutations activated, filling the sewer with explosions and collapsing it right on top of Mei and Bradley.

“No, wait!” Greed yelled, rushing forward. Scar caught him by the shoulder, pulling him back toward the exit. Greed shoved him away and rand toward the rubble.  _ Not again! _

Scar grabbed him again, starting to drag him away. “We have to go.”

“Let go of me!” Greed snarled.

“That won’t kill him,” Scar said, his voice infuriatingly even. “Mei bought us time, and we’re wasting it. We have to go meet up with the others.”

Greed paused for half a second more before turning, brushing past Scar and heading back to the exit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gah I love Mei so much and I re-wrote this chapter over and over trying to figure out how to *not* kill her off, but... welp, didn't manage it.


	6. An Intriguing Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Edward gets driven to school, Kyoya makes some observations, and the author posts a blatant filler chapter to let everyone know she's still alive.

It took Edward a second to remember where he was when he woke up. He had to take a second to adjust to the fact that it  _ wasn’t _ a dream, and he was in fact in someone else’s body and world. Meaning he would have to keep pretending to be that someone else. Tamaki, wasn’t it? He should have asked the Colonel more about who he was supposed to be acting like.

“Master Tamaki?” a maid called through the bedroom door. Ed recognized the voice as the one belonging to the maid who had found him that first morning. “Are you feeling any better?”

Edward got up, taking a deep breath. He just had to keep pretending to be Tamaki long enough to get to that library. “Yep! Feelin’ good!” Was that eccentric enough for a rich person?

Apparently it was, since the maid proceeded to enter and lay out a uniform for him. “I’m very glad to hear that, Master Tamaki. Your friends were all very worried about you yesterday. In fact, one of them has insisted on picking you up this morning!”

Hopefully that would be Mustang. As much as Ed hated to admit it, he  _ did _ need the Colonel’s help. After all, he had managed to survive without being discovered for long enough to actually find out more about where they were.

It wasn’t too hard to fake his way through the morning. Tamaki’s appetite seemed to match his own, which meant a huge breakfast. After that it was simply a matter of letting whatever member of staff was around at the time do what they needed to get him ready. He would have preferred not to go to the trouble, but it was easier than guessing what he was supposed to be doing. Before long Edward found himself rushed out of the mansion and into a black car with darkly tinted windows. Unfortunately, the ‘friend’ who had come to pick him up was  _ not _ , in fact, Colonel Mustang.

“Good morning, Tamaki,” Kyoya said, leaning forward with what could only be described as a predatory stare. It reminded Ed of… most of the people who wanted to kill him, honestly. “How are you feeling today? Not still ill, I hope. You were acting rather strange yesterday. Even compared to your usual self.”

“Yeah, well… I’m fine now,” Ed said with a nervous chuckle. “No need to worry about me at all!”

“... Right,” Kyoya sighed, pulling out a notebook and beginning to scribble something down in it. “Look, I’m going to be frank with you. Whoever you are, I don’t care. But if the real Tamaki isn’t back where he belongs by the end of the day, I can promise you will regret it.”

Ed felt a weight fall off his shoulders, even as the tension of the conversation pushed down on him. He leaned back in his seat, shrugging. “Look, if knew how to get him back, I would. Then maybe I could get back home, too. But until I figure out how the hell to do that, you’re just going to have to deal with this. And let me tell ya, it’s going to take longer than a day.”

Kyoya tilted his head a little, making another note in that book of his. “Interesting. It was already quite obvious that you weren’t the mastermind, but to think you might be an unwilling participant… But then why play along?”

“What else can I do? Let ‘em know I’m  _ not _ this Tamaki guy and end up on the street? At least this way I’ve got a place to crash while I research this damn place,” Ed said.

“In other words, you’ve decided to take advantage of the situation,” Kyoya said, still writing in his notebook. “So, what is your  _ real _ name, and where is this ‘home’ you’re trying to get back to?”

“You don’t strike me as the sorta guy that would believe me without any proof,” Ed said, glancing around. He wasn’t entirely sure how cars worked, but he was pretty sure that he could use the seat for material in his ‘proof’ without destroying the whole thing. He clapped his hands together then put one down on the seat, pulling some of the leather and transmuting it into a simple leather wallet. “To give you the short version, I’m from another world, and  _ somehow _ , I found myself in this ‘Tamaki’ guy’s body. Name’s Edward Elric.”

 

Kyoya was somewhat aware that he had dropped his pen, but was finding it hard to start the simple act of bending over and picking it up. He was, instead, rather preoccupied with the stranger in front of him. Normally he would dismiss the man as insane, but he had seen him, clear as day, perform  _ actual magic _ . The trick wasn’t in the car, that much was certain, since it was Kyoya’s own car. Could the wallet have been in Edward’s sleeves? It was possible that the sparks could have hidden the slight of hand required to pull it out, even if that didn’t explain the strange marks on the seat.

Slowly, Kyoya took a deep breath and picked up his pen. He stared at the wallet for a few moments, automatically sketching it into his notebook. “Again, if you please,” he said, watching Edward closely and committing to taking notes. Once again Edward put his hands together ( _ a required step, or some sort of self-preparation? _ ) then put one hand down onto the seat. With a flash of blue light, there was another simple wallet.

“... I can’t find the trick…” he muttered to himself.

“That’s ‘cause there is no trick,” Edward said. He put both wallets back on the seat, clapped his hands together, and put one on top of the wallets. It was hard to see past the blue light, but Kyoya managed to look past that just enough to watch them seem to sink back into the seat.

Kyoya was silent for a moment or two, still trying to figure out a rational explanation for what had happened, but… “I suppose either I’ve finally gone insane, or this is real. There isn’t much I can do about the former, so I’ll just have to… treat this like it’s real.”

That was decided, then. Kyoya wrote it down once, twice, three times. It was in the book, so it was decided. It was real. Which meant he didn’t have to worry about how crazy it was, he could just focus on what to do moving forward.

“So. This home of yours-”

“Amestris,” Edward cut in.

Kyoya made a note of that before continuing. “Amestris. Right. If you wish to return  _ there _ , then the question is how you got  _ here _ in the first place.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m stuck on,” Edward sighed. “Whatever it was, it dumped my soul in Tamaki’s body, so it’s gotta be powerful.”

“Hm. So you don’t usually look like that?” Kyoya asked. A theory was starting to form, one that left him with a heavy, shaky feeling of dread. He refused to show it, though. “Well, regardless, it would be better for everyone if you were to continue to act as Tamaki. We wouldn’t want to cause a panic. I would advise that you stay quiet and continue to act ill for today. After classes, meet me in Music Room Three.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Dating on Edit notes goes by DD/MM/YY)  
> EDIT 7/8/18: Apologies for the next chapter taking so long, irl stuff has been crazy. I'm still working on it, though!


	7. Refuge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tamaki is repressing things, Mori silently worries, and Hawkeye is stressed out.

Hawkeye had to wonder why things had turned out the way they did. Of course, she understood everything Alphonse had told her about the homunculi, and the nationwide transmutation circle. She hadn’t _wanted_ to understand, but she did. What she _didn’t_ understand was how she had ended up in charge of the large band of Amestrian refugees huddled together in a sewer hoping that their Fuhrer wasn’t about to emerge from the darkness and kill them all. There were higher ranked officers among the crowd, people who were supposed to be concerned with that sort of thing, but most of them were more worried about keeping their families safe than leading the rest of the people around them. Hawkeye couldn’t blame them, really. The only thing that frustrated her was the fact that meant command had somehow fallen into her lap.

Still, it wasn’t like she was incapable. It just meant that she sometimes had to leave some of her more personal duties to others, which was how she found herself hunting for Tamaki and Mori through the crowd of refugees. She had left them with Alphonse while sorting out food distribution, only for him to lose them moments later while tending to the soldier who had warned them about Bradley. In all honesty, she was a little anxious whenever Mori was out of her sight. After all, he had Colonel Mustang’s body, and she was determined to keep that safe until Mustang himself returned to it, however long that would take.

Eventually, Hawkeye found Tamaki and Mori toward the center of the makeshift camp, where all of the medics and mechanics had set up their equipment, talking to Winry. Mori was standing around silently, something Hawkeye noticed him doing a lot, while Tamaki was completely engrossed in Winry’s explanation of how automail worked.

“And the nerves just connect without any trouble?” Tamaki asked, staring at his arm with wide eyes. Hawkeye had to admit, the awed expression fit him a lot better than that shellshocked one.

Winry made a vague gesture. “Sort of. There’s a heap of recovery time, usually.”

“Recovery time or not, this is amazing!” Tamaki said.

“If only Ed appreciated it as much as you do,” Winry grumbled. “I swear, that idiot comes back with it in pieces almost every other week! He’s always fighting…”

Tamaki’s expression grew a little more serious at that, though there was a hint of slyness in his smile. “This arm and this leg... They must have saved him so many times,” he said. “If he’s half the man his brother seems to think he is, then of course he appreciates it.”

Winry sighed, crossing her arms. “Sure, but he could still stand to say so more often.”

“Yes, that certainly is true,” Tamaki said with a nod. “One should always be sure that a lady feels valued, especially when one’s life depends on said lady.”

“You two seem to be getting along well,” Hawkeye said, sitting next to Tamaki. To be honest, Tamaki seemed to be taking things _too_ well. After what they saw while escaping Bradley, not to mention the shock of waking up in someone else’s body, the kid should be a wreck.

Tamaki grinned. “It certainly helps that Miss Rockbell is such a fascinating young woman. And such an accomplished engineer!”

“You can just call me Winry,” Winry said, clearly basking in the praise.

“Anyway,” Hawkeye said, putting an early end to all the flattery, “Tamaki, please don’t wander off again. Alphonse was worried about you. And Mori, you’re my responsibility, so when I tell you to stay somewhere I expect you to stay there. I don’t want to have to hunt you down again.”

“Sorry,” Mori said.

Tamaki raised a hand with a sheepish grin. “Actually, it was my fault he wasn’t where we should have been. I wanted to go for a walk, and he accompanied me.”

“Well now we’re going to walk right back to where you should be,” Hawkeye said. “Until we’re somewhere more secure, I want to know where the two of you are at all times.”

 

It wasn’t long before Tamaki and Mori were back where Hawkeye wanted them to be. Tamaki lay down, slowly opening and closing his the automail arm’s hand.

“This has probably saved his life…” he repeated to himself, trying to ignore how the hand had started shaking. “This place… is really dangerous, isn’t it? We could really die.”

“Yeah,” Mori said grimly, lying down next to Tamaki.

“I wonder if anyone else from home is here? Do you think they’re alright?” Tamaki could hardly keep that shaking from spreading from his arm to his voice.

Mori was quiet. It was hard for Tamaki to tell if it was his usual quiet, his ‘thinking’ quiet, or a new, more damning kind of quiet. Really, Tamaki didn’t expect him to have the answer. He couldn’t help but worry, though. Was Haruhi there? What about Kyoya? And the Twins? Or even Honey? If they _were_ there, how was Tamaki supposed to know?

If they were there, was there a chance they were among the bodies he had seen, bleeding out into the sewer?

“Tamaki,” Mori said firmly, taking his hand and holding it still. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“There has to be, though!” Tamaki snapped. “There has to be something we can do…” He couldn’t just sit around and wait for the whole thing to work itself out!

Mori rolled over onto his side, hugging Tamaki. He didn’t say anything, as usual, but just having someone Tamaki knew he could trust so close was calming, in a way. After what he had seen he had been sure he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he somehow managed it.

 

“It’s a long journey to the desert,” Hawkeye sighed, looking over one of the maps someone had salvaged. “We’ll have to try to stay underground as much as we can, or we’ll risk getting torn apart by that ‘Immortal Legion’. Our best chance is to use the homunculi’s plans against them. That tunnel they dug under Amestris should get us close enough to Youswell that we should be able to use the mining tunnels from there. It’s risky, though. We’ll have to send a few scouts ahead to be sure the homunculi aren’t still using those tunnels for anything. If we still had Scar and Greed then I would send them, but after this long we have to assume that they won’t be returning.”

She looked up at Alphonse with a glare. He had already halfway raised his hand, as she predicted. “No, Al. I need you here, defending the main group and trying to figure out how to get Ed and the Colonel back. I’ll be sending some soldiers I know. Good, reliable men.” She just had to hope they came back.

“Um, okay,” Alphonse said, nodding. “But Hawkeye, can’t we wait a little longer? I’m sure that Scar, Greed, and Mei will-”

“We can’t put these people at risk. If they could survive so could Bradley,” Hawkeye said. Honestly, she thought Bradley might have had more of a chance of surviving than the others. “We leave first thing in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4/11/2018: Hey! I'm still alive! Things irl got crazy. I moved twice, got diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, got a job, had to quit that job because of the second move I mentioned, got *another* job, and basically had my whole life go shaky under my feet for a few months.  
> I am still working on this! Unfortunately, I've completely forgotten where I was going with everything. I'm going to re-read this and get back on track before writing up the next chapter, so it may be a few weeks.


	8. Traveling Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which ed finally arrives at the Host Club, Alphonse has a theory, and Haruhi meets someone new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, talk about a hiatus, right? Sorry for that three-moth gap. In return for your patience, please accept this special apology triple-length chapter!

It had been a _very_ long time since Edward had last attended any kind of school. At least he was right about there being a library there, though. He didn’t bother paying much attention to most of the classes, instead choosing to study the history and geography books he had borrowed. In fact, he was so busy with those that he hardly noticed that classes had finished until Kyoya approached his desk.

“Come now, _Tamaki_. We have a club meeting to attend,” he said with an obviously fake smile.

Ed looked up from his book, a little annoyed, though not exactly annoyed at Kyoya. He was more frustrated with the situation, and the fact that he was no closer to finding a way home. Not that he thought he would find anything relevant in the books he had borrowed, of course.

With a sigh, he put the books away and got up. “I guess we do,” he said, gesturing for Kyoya to lead the way. He waited until they were in an empty hallway to ask, “So, how does Tamaki usually act during this ‘Host Club’ anyway?”

“I don’t see why that matters,” Kyoya said, glancing over his shoulder at Ed. “While there are certain advantages to hiding your identity to the wider world, I see no benefit in trying to fool the other club members. Besides, I don’t think you would be capable of it.”

“I could if I wanted to,” Ed grumbled, pouting a little.

Kyoya’s fake smile widened condescendingly. “Alright. Let’s test that theory, shall we?” he asked, opening the doors to Music Room 3.

Ed walked in confidently, only to be immediately tackled by some small, fast person. Instinctively, he broke their grip and flipped them over himself using their own momentum. Though, instead of landing on their back like they should have, his tiny attacker landed on their feet with a look of shock. In fact, everyone in the room seemed shocked, other than Kyoya (who instead looked smug) and Colonel Mustang (who was at the back of the room, looking both frustrated and as if he had been expecting something like that).

“T-Tama-chan…?” whimpered the kid that ‘attacked’ him.

Ed realized a little too late that the ‘attack’ was likely just an over-enthusiastic hug. “Uh- Wait, I didn’t mean to-”

Before he could finish, the kid started bawling and ran to Colonel Mustang and clung to him. “Takashi! Tama-chan is being mean to me!”

A pair of twins approached Ed suspiciously. “Are you feelin’ okay, boss?” one asked.

“You’re acting really _off_ today,” the other continued.

With a smug chuckle, Kyoya finally spoke up. “I did warn you that you wouldn’t be able to fool them. Though I didn’t think you would fail quite so quickly,” he said. “Everyone, I’m afraid that this is not Tamaki. This is Edward Elric. I believe that he and Tamaki have… been made to switch places, for the time being.”

“So he’s been impersonating the boss, huh?” one of the twins asked, his tone and expression growing much more sinister.

With a matching grin, the other twin added, “And he made Honey-senpai cry, too.”

They both moved a little closer, making Ed worry he might have to defend himself. Flipping that ‘Honey’ kid had been largely an accident. He wasn’t sure how well he would do in an actual fight, especially two-on-one, in someone else’s body.

“Now, now, don’t get ahead of yourselves. I’m afraid the situation is much more… _complicated_ than that.” Kyoya said, his smile dropping and his expression shifting to something more serious. “Edward, show them what you showed me.”

“You don’t have to order me around,” Ed huffed. Still, he clapped his hands together and created one of his more common constructs: a spear (a decision that may have been slightly motivated by the fact that he was still somewhat surrounded by the twins).

“What the hell?!” one of the twins gasped, inspecting the spear.

The other crouched to inspect the portion of floor that Ed had used as material. “That’s just not possible…”

The first twin pouted, an expression that was quickly matched by the second. “Alright, boss, you got us,” they said in unison. “How’d you do that? What’s the trick?”

Before Ed could answer, Kyoya cut in with an unusual note of tension in his voice. “Do you honestly think I would be this concerned if this was some sort of trick?”

 

The twins froze at that. “You?” one of them asked.

“Concerned?” the other continued.

“If he’s admitting it, he must be serious,” they whispered to each other.

Kyoya took a deep breath and adjusted his glasses, internally berating himself for his slip of the tongue. Still, he couldn’t deny that he _was_ concerned. More than that, in fact, he was downright _worried_ , bordering on _afraid_ . Not that he would admit to anything more than concern, though. “Yes, I _am_ concerned,” he sighed. “Because if Edward is _here_ , in Tamaki’s place, then where do you think that leaves Tamaki?”

“Does that mean Senpai is wherever Ed was before he got here?” Haruhi asked.

Kyoya noticed that she didn’t seem surprised or doubtful about Edward’s identity. Perhaps he was honest with her when he visited her the day before? Regardless, he didn’t mention it. There were more important things to discuss. “I believe so,” he said. “And, considering Edward’s reactions to everything today, could any of you hazard a guess at the nature of the place he has come from?”

“... It’s dangerous, right?” Honey asked, still a little tearful. “That’s why Ta- why Ed tried to defend himself when I hugged him, isn’t it?”

“Dangerous is an understatement,” Edward sighed, leaning against the nearest wall and crossing his arms. “This Tamaki guy everyone keeps going on about, can he fight?”

Kyoya shook his head. “He has some training in self defense and proper use of firearms,” which was just common sense, in Kyoya’s opinion, especially for those with any amount of wealth, power, or status, “but I don’t believe it is quite what you would think of as being able to fight, is it?”

Strangely enough, it wasn’t Edward who answered. It was Mori. “No, that’s not enough. Especially not for anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in Fullmetal’s place.”

“Oh, so _now_ you finally speak up, Colonel?” Edward sighed, rolling his eyes. “You couldn’t have done that earlier, like when those twins were about to kill me?”

Kyoya gripped his notebook hard enough to crumple some of the pages. He had seen Mori (or whoever it really was) acting strangely for the past week or so, but to think he hadn’t even noticed that it was someone else entirely! “And who _else_ is not who they appear to be?” he said through gritted teeth.

No-one spoke for a moment. “As far as we know, it’s just the two of us,” answered the one who looked like Mori. “I am Colonel Roy Mustang. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get home for the better part of a week now.”

Honey stared up at Mustang, looking betrayed. “I knew it… I knew you were acting weird! You’re not Takashi at all!” He broke out of Mustang’s hold and ran over to Haruhi, hiding behind her.

“Sorry, kid, but it’s not like I had any other choice,” Mustang sighed. “I’m trying to figure out how to get everyone back where they should be, but it’s not like I can pull the solution out of thin air.”

“We’re just gonna have to keep working at it,” Edward said. “It might have been some kind of Alchemy that did it, but since no-one in this world seems to know about it we’ll basically be starting from scratch, minus what little we already know.”

Kyoya nodded in agreement. “It would be better if you could work to solve this problem in a more private location. I believe it’s time I organized another Host Club outing. That should give us a few uninterrupted weeks, far from prying eyes. I will have someone pick everyone up tomorrow. Until then, I suggest you two keep acting as Mori and Tamaki.”

 

* * *

 

 Tamaki found himself talking even more than he usually did as they walked. If things were too quiet, it was too easy to remember what had just happened…

He had learned a little about where they were going (a place called ‘South City’ on the way to ‘Youswell’) and why they were trying to stay underground (there were apparently horrible creatures above ground, but Tamaki hadn’t asked for any details on that). He had talked to Winry some more, but she had needed to go help someone fix their automail so that they could keep moving. Things had gone quiet, and Tamaki had too much time to think.

That was when he heard a child crying. The people around the kid shuffled past, too tired and shellshocked to do anything to help. Tamaki was at his side in an instant.

“Well now, what’s got you so upset, little one?” he asked with a kind smile as he crouched down to be closer to the kid’s height. Though, he did notice that he didn’t have to crouch far. Edward really was quite short.

The kid sniffled, looking at him. “I- I c-can’t f- I can’t f-find my M-Mommy…!” he wailed, latching on to Tamaki. For a second, Tamaki remembered those bodies in the sewers. Was the kid’s mother…? No. Of course not. That just wouldn’t be fair.

Tamaki stood, still holding onto the kid and effectively turning the sudden hug into carrying. “Well then, we’ll just have to find her together, won’t we?” he said, his voice full of false confidence. “Just stay with me until we do, and I’ll be sure to keep you safe.” Of course, Tamaki had no idea how he planned to do that, but the words seemed to calm the kid down, at least.

It was a little over an hour before Tamaki finally managed to track down the kid’s mother. She was toward the back of the crowd, desperately pleading to Alphonse. “Please, isn’t there anything you can do? He’s my son, he’s the only family I have left-!”

“Excuse me, madam,” Tamaki said, moving closer. “But is this who you’re looking for?”

The woman turned, her desperation shifting to tearful joy at the sight of the kid in Tamaki’s arms. “Oh, my little boy! There you are!” she gasped, rushing forward.

“Mommy!” the kid cried. He reached out for her, still crying.

The woman swept up her son and hugged him tightly, starting to cry herself. “I can’t begin to thank you enough!” she said to Tamaki, beaming through her tears.

“It was no trouble at all, my dear,” Tamaki said with a slight bow. “There’s no greater joy than assisting a beautiful woman such as yourself.”

After a few more tearful ‘thank you’s, the woman moved on to keep up with the majority of the group, leaving Tamaki and Alphonse room to talk.

“It’s a relief to see them reunited, isn’t it?” Alphonse said happily.

Tamaki nodded in agreement. “It’s truly a tragedy when a child is separated from his mother too soon.”

Alphonse sighed, his tone dropping to something a lot less cheerful. “Yeah. it is.”

That tone reminded Tamaki of something that happened in the ‘dream’ he had before arriving there. That figure had said he was similar to Edward because of his ‘sentimentality’, hadn’t it? And right when he was reading the part of the door that talked about revealing the location of his mother. And since Edward and Alphonse were brothers, he must have lost his mother, somehow. Tamaki had to wonder if she was just missing, like his mother, or… something worse. Obviously Tamaki wasn’t untactful enough to just ask about that. Though there was one thing he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Alphonse, do you know anything about a big stone door in the middle of a white room so big you can’t see the walls?” he asked, the question spilling out before he could think of a better way to word it. He didn’t even know if the door was real, after all.

Judging by Alphonse’s reaction, though, it surely was. “You- You’ve seen the Truth?”

“Eh? The ‘Truth’?” Tamaki repeated. Was that what the door was called? “I don’t know anything about that. I was just wondering if you knew how to get past whatever it is that’s inside the door. There’s… something in there that I have to know.”

“Please, believe me, it’s not worth it,” Alphonse said, shaking his head. Before Tamaki could protest, Alphonse stopped in his tracks and made a small, shocked sound. “Wait. If you went through there, then does all this have to do with Human Transmutation?”

“What’s-?”

“Oh! I know how I can contact Brother!” Alphonse gasped. He ran ahead a few steps, half-turning to shout over his shoulder at Tamaki, “Sorry, I need to go talk to Lieutenant Hawkeye right away!”

Tamaki was left standing there, confused. Somewhere in the back of his mind came the thought, _Now I finally know how Kyoya feels when I run off without explaining things._

 

Greed was… well, he didn’t really know _what_ he was feeling, but he knew he didn’t like it. And Scar wasn’t helping. The bastard hadn’t even brought up the fact that he had stopped Greed from saving Mei. Finally, after hours of walking (and fighting off any groups of Immortal Legion soldiers they found, which often took a while), Greed couldn’t stay quiet anymore.

“It’s your fault, you know,” he snapped.

Scar raised an eyebrow, frowning even more than he usually did. “I don’t follow.”

“I lost another henchman because of you. If you hadn’t held me back, I could have dug her out of there.”

Scar shook his head. “And what good would it have been for anyone if we dug out her body, only to release Bradley in the process? Even with the two of us fighting him, I’m certain that would have lead to more deaths.”

“So what if it did?!” Greed snapped. “It doesn’t matter if I die, I can regenerate! So why do people keep dying to protect me?”

Scar scoffed. “You think she did it for you? Mei knew she was dead from the moment Bradley’s swords touched her neck. She decided to use her final act to buy us time to escape, and we have no choice but to respect that.”

Greed glared at Scar, ready to refute that, but stopped when he actually got a good look at him. His clenched fists and tense shoulders… Scar was grieving as much as he was, wasn’t he? With a small, frustrated sound, Greed looked away. “Let’s just keep moving. Knowing who’s in charge of those guys, I’d say everyone’s headed to Youswell. That’s the closest city to the desert, and they’ll be able to hide in the mines until they’re ready to cross. We should catch up to them before they do.”

 

* * *

 

It was starting to get dark by the time the Host Club had finished interrogating Edward and Mustang. Haruhi had been sure to call her dad and let him know that she would be home late, making up some sort of club activity as an excuse. She almost never lied to her dad, but it seemed important not to let anyone else know about what was going on.

Haruhi refused the offers that the other club members made to drive her home. A walk would be good for her, she thought. It would be time to process everything before she got home and had to act normal for her dad’s sake.

With a cool night breeze gently brushing past her, Haruhi finally started to relax. Sure, wherever Ed and Mustang had come from sounded dangerous, but Tamaki had Mori there. As long as he didn’t do anything _extraordinarily_ stupid, he would be fine, right? Of course. The thought of either one being in actual danger just didn’t feel real.

Was it getting colder? Haruhi could swear that she felt a chill down her spine. Nervously, she paused in the light of a street lamp and glanced around. It might have just been paranoia, but she could swear that something had moved behind her. She couldn’t see anything, though. Even so, she reached into her bag and grabbed her pepper spray. After that incident at the beach, she had picked some up to put the other Host Club members at ease about her safety. She was annoyed about it at the time, but suddenly she was _very_ glad that she did. Something wasn’t right. A shadow flickered unnaturally in the corner of her eye.

“H-Hello? Who’s there?” she called, looking around. Maybe she should have gotten a lift. She took a deep breath, planning her next action carefully. She had her pepper spray. That was good. There were only two other options: call someone to let them know something was wrong, or try to get home as fast as possible. After a moment, Haruhi decided to do both.

Pepper spray in one hand and phone in the other, she quickly sent Kaoru an ‘SOS’, unwilling to look down at her phone long enough to write out a more detailed message. As soon as she was done, she took another look around and then began quickly walking home.

The second she stepped out of the light, though, she felt something latch onto her leg. With a panicked shout, she tried to pull away only to find that the shadowy hand wrapped around her ankle wouldn’t let go.

“H-hey! Let go of me!” she shouted, looking around.

A chuckle echoed through the street. “And why would I do that?” a voice asked. It sounded young, but that didn’t make it any less threatening, especially not with the shadow-arms that were slowly creeping up Haruhi’s legs and torso. She could feel the fingers digging into her skin, leaving sharp, stinging cuts whenever she struggled. Even so, she kept trying her hardest to escape, sure that something worse than a few cuts would happen if she let things go further. She only stopped when the hands reached her throat, wrapping around it just tight enough that she was sure it would bruise.

“You’re a spirited one, aren’t you?” laughed the voice. From the closest alley, a small, dirty-looking child appeared, grinning dangerously at Haruhi. “And it seems like you’ve already summoned your allies to help you. I suppose that means I have no time to waste, then.”  
The hands around Haruhi’s throat squeezed tighter as the boy moved closer. Desperately but ineffectively, Haruhi clawed at them, trying to loosen their grip. But they were only shadows, and Haruhi couldn’t even touch them, let alone move them.

The last thing she saw was her own blood dripping down onto the pavement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated, even if they are only a few words!


	9. A Bad Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Host Club answers and SOS, someone is acting too normal, and Honey has a bad feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter chapter this time, sorry!

“Haruhi? Haruhi?!”

With a groan, Haruhi opened her eyes.

“Oh thank God.” Hikaru hugged Haruhi tightly, which gave her a chance to look around. It was still night, and she was lying in Hikaru’s lap in that same side-street she had been in when she was attacked. Kaoru, Kyoya, and Honey were close by, watching out for danger.

“Haruhi, what happened?” Hikaru asked.

Haruhi sat up, hissing when that made her headache worse. Something felt… wrong. “Something… attacked me. But I don’t remember what it was…”

Kyoya knelt down next to her, putting a hand under her chin and making her face him. “Do you feel nauseous or dizzy?” he asked. Haruhi recognized that harsh tone as worry, though she knew that wasn’t the time to bring it up.

“No,” she answered, keeping things quick and simple. That was likely to help Kyoya the most. Besides, if he hadn’t taken the time to mask his worry before talking, he was clearly serious.

“Do your limbs feel numb or weak?”

“No.”

“Do you have a headache?”

“Yeah.”

“Is your vision blurry?”

“No.”

“Do you feel drowsy at all?”

“No.”

Kyoya stood, making a note in that book of his. “From what I can tell, you don’t seem to have a concussion. I would  _ prefer _ if you saw an actual doctor, but if this is related to…  _ recent events _ , that may not be the best idea,” he said, snapping his book closed. “If you notice any of those symptoms in the next two days, tell me immediately. I’ve already called your father and told him that you decided to stay the night with Honey.”

Haruhi nodded, agreeing until that last part. “Wait, you mean you’re not going to let me go home?”

“‘Honestly…” Kyoya sighed, adjusting his glasses before looking back down at Haruhi. “What would you do if whoever or  _ whatever _ attacked you followed you home? Do you think you and your father could fight it off if it was related to all of this Alchemy nonsense?”

“And you think anyone  _ else _ could?!” Haruhi snapped.

“Out of all of us, Honey has the best chance at it,” Kyoya said. By then his voice was even and guarded, though Haruhi could hear a slight note of tension in it. He really was afraid.

With a sigh, Haruhi nodded. “Fine. I’ll stay with Honey-senpai tonight.”

Kyoya gave a curt nod before turning and walking off. Haruhi supposed that meant that they were dismissed. As annoyed as she was with him, she couldn’t help but worry about him heading off alone. She was about to call after him before Honey interrupted.

“Let’s go, Haruhi,” he said quietly, taking her hand and starting to gently pull her away.

 

To say Honey was upset would be an understatement. Everything he knew was on shaky ground at that point. Just the idea of alternate worlds would have been scary enough, but with Tama-chan and Takashi ( _ especially _ Takashi) not being themselves, Honey couldn’t help but be tense. Adding onto that the idea that those two were stuck in some dangerous other world where magic was real, and then on top of that Haruhi being attacked the same day that all of that was revealed… There was one other thing, too, but there was a chance that it was just him being paranoid. Even so, he just got a bad feeling the second he saw Haruhi unconscious, and it still hadn’t gone away.

Once they got back to his home, Honey easily got back to his usual routine, adding in a few more sweets than usual to calm his nerves. Haruhi seemed to be acting normal the whole time, thankfully. No signs of a concussion or… anything else. But the bad feeling still wouldn’t go away.

It was right before bed that Honey decided to bring it up. They had plenty of guest rooms, but Honey had insisted that she sleep in his room to make it ‘like a sleepover’. He was sitting curled up in the middle of the bed, holding Usa-chan close as if he could ward off whatever was causing that bad feeling. Haruhi, meanwhile, was trying to find a comfortable spot nearer to the edge of the bed.

“Hey…” Honey said softly, looking up at Haruhi. She paused, glancing over her shoulder at him. “I just wanna know… Are you really Haru-chan?”

Haruhi laughed a little. “Of course. I mean, I see why you’re asking. That’s not as much of a given as it usually is, is it?”

Honey nodded. “It’s really scary, thinking our friends might not be our friends. We’re lucky Ed and Roy are nice people…”

“Yeah. I couldn’t imagine them trying to hurt us, thankfully,” Haruhi said, going back to adjusting the pillows around her.

Honey was quiet for a few moments. Nothing seemed wrong. But something  _ felt _ wrong. “Haru-chan… what would you do if I was a bad guy instead of me?”

“I have no idea,” Haruhi sighed. “I mean, it’s not like I could fight you. And even if I could, this thing only switches people’s minds, right? Which means if the ‘bad guy’ got hurt, once we fixed things you’d be the one that was hurt.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Honey said softly. Even if the bad feeling meant something and wasn’t just him being paranoid, he couldn’t do much about it. If Haruhi turned out to be a bad guy in disguise then hurting them would only hurt Haruhi in the long run. So what  _ could _ he do?


	10. Off to the Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoya learns something intriguing, Alphonse takes a message, and Haruhi has a chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everybody! Also yes, I am alive! Just very bad at time management!!!

Honestly, Kyoya had been considering changing the plan, given what happened to Haruhi. Though, frustratingly enough, he wasn’t sure _exactly_ what had happened. It would have been easier to make a decision if he knew that. It was the _not knowing_ that was getting to him the most. How was he supposed to make any sort of plan without knowing the details first?! He couldn’t just charge ahead blindly like Tamaki, he didn’t have that fool’s dumb luck, it wouldn’t all just _work itself out_ for him like it did for that idiot!

… Kyoya missed him. He had a way of making things seem less dire.

Despite his doubts, Kyoya had the cars sent around to pick everyone up, as planned. They would be going on an ‘excursion’ for three weeks. Edward and Mustang would be spending the entire time working on fixing the _mess_ surrounding their situation.

Since Kyoya still had a headache, he decided to pick up Edward later. He would have liked to just send instructions to Tamaki’s driver so as not to interact with Edward at all, but he wanted to keep an eye on the strangers. So, with that in mind, he set off early to pick up Mustang. As they pulled up the driveway, Kyoya could see him standing by the dor, ready to leave. From far off, he really did seem like Mori, though it was likely that he was still acting the part out in the open.

Even when he got in the car, he still seemed to be acting like Mori. Kyoya smiled through his frustration. “There’s no need to continue that charade with me, Colonel.”

Mustang glanced at the small window that separated where they were sitting from the drivers’ compartment, raising an eyebrow.

“He can’t see or hear us,” Kyoya assured him.

With that, Mustang finally seemed to relax. Or, rather, he seemed to hold his tension in a way that was more natural to him. Kyoya had to hold back a sigh of relief, glad that there was finally some form of visual distinction between Mustang and Mori. The idea that someone had been pretending to be one of his classmates for days and he _hadn’t noticed_ was unsettling. At least Edward had been easy to identify.

They sat in silence for a while, both of them clearly engaged with their own thoughts. Mustang stared out the window while Kyoya stared at him. Eventually, though, Mustang glanced over to Kyoya and asked, “So you can just take time off of school whenever you want, huh?”

“Well, not exactly,” Kyoya said, shaking his head. “We will be completing our regular studies off-campus. It wouldn’t do to fall behind. I suppose I’ll have to do Tamaki and Mori’s work for them.”

“Isn’t Mori a year above you?” Mustang asked.

Kyoya shrugged. “I’ll just have to do a bit of extra studying.”

With a chuckle, Mustang looked back out the window. “You’d make a good Alchemist.”

Kyoya thought about it, noting down his questions on the subject as he thought of them. The first, and most obvious, was the question of if it was even possible for him. He had seen it done, but only by Edward. Was it possible for people from his own world to perform Alchemy? “That’s… a very intriguing notion, in it’s own way,” he murmured, grinning. “Perhaps you could show me the basics?”

 

* * *

 

“I’m sure it’ll work!” Alphonse said.

Hawkeye looked doubtful. “But there’s a chance it could kill you. That’s what you said, right?”

Alphonse faltered slightly. “Y-yeah, but…”

There was a moment of awkward silence before Hawkeye sighed. “Just be careful, Al. If you think it’s going wrong, stop immediately. That’s an order.”

Alphonse brightened up, nodding, which had Hawkeye sighing again. She couldn’t believe she was letting a kid do something so reckless. But she needed to know if Mustang was alright just as much as Alphonse needed to know if his brother was alright. “We’re due for a rest anyway,” she said, half-turning to look back at the civilians behind them. They weren’t suited to hard march, and even some of the soldiers were suffering, given the circumstances.

Mori, who had been walking quietly beside Hawkeye, turned to face Alphonse’s general direction. “If it works, tell Mitsukuni I’m alright.”

Alphonse nodded. “Right. I should ask Tamaki if there’s anything he wants to tell anyone, too.” With that, Alphonse headed off to find Tamaki while Hawkeye got to work bringing the group to a stop.

 

* * *

 

“So Kyoya’s family owns this whole beach, huh?” Edward asked Haruhi, looking out at the ocean view from the ‘summer home’ they were staying in.

“Yeah,” Haruhi said. She didn’t sound all that happy about it. Edward glanced over at her questioningly. “Oh, uh… I didn’t really have much fun last time we were here. B-but I don’t think it’ll be a problem this time.”

“Right. Well, I should get to work,” Edward said, turning away from the view. “The Colonel’s such a hardass sometimes, it doesn’t look like I’m gonna get a break at all.”

Haruhi chuckled, nodding. “Alright, good luck.”

With that, Edward headed back to the guest room that they had cleared out to give themselves more space to experiment with. He had spent the entire trip to the beach trying to figure out what could have possibly sent him to another world, but with his memory of the events right before then so hazy he hadn’t managed to figure out anything. Maybe the homunculi were involved, somehow? It would make sense that they would want him out of the way of whatever they were planning, but if that was the case then why target the Colonel as well?

“Augh, it just doesn’t make any sense!” he snapped, punching the wall. If he couldn’t figure out what had happened, then he didn’t have any hope of figuring out how to reverse it. So he would just have to keep working at it until he made a breakthrough.

 

As soon as they got to the beach, Honey was quick to pull the twins aside into one of the empty guest rooms. Kaoru wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but as soon as he saw Honey’s tense expression he knew it was serious. Hikaru had obviously picked up on the same thing.

“Have either of you noticed anything weird about Haruhi lately?” Honey asked.

Kaoru glanced at his brother, who looked just as confused as he was, before they both shook their heads.

“No, she seems the same as ever,” Hikaru said.

Kaoru thought about it for a moment before asking, “Did Mori not being Mori throw you off that badly, senpai?”

“Maybe that’s what it is…” Honey mumbled thoughtfully. “I had a really, really bad feeling around her all night last night. Could you help me keep an eye on her?”

“Yeah, why not?” the twins said in unison. Of course, since they had split up from Haruhi to have the conversation in the first place, they were going to have to find her before they could do any spying.

 

Haruhi hadn’t been feeling well for a while. Since she woke up from that mugging,probably. That faint headache was still there, and she felt a strange mix of hungry and overfull at the same time. With some vague idea of fresh air possibly helping her feel better, after talking to Edward, Haruhi had wandered out to the beach to walk along the shore. The lights from the place they were staying stretched her shadow out along the sand and scattered it strangely over the surface of the water. With the waves, it was almost like her shadow was moving on it’s own.

“That’s ridiculous,” she scolded herself. Just because strange things had happened recently, that didn’t mean that everything around her was going to turn somehow weird. That sinister feeling that she couldn’t quite shake was just paranoia.

Haruhi sat down and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to make the feeling go away. She was still shaken from that attack the other night, obviously. That was the only reason that there was some weird feeling of dread pressing down on her, right?

After a minute, she couldn’t bare to keep her eyes closed. She snapped them open, hoping she wouldn’t see anything weird, but.. No, that was just her shadow on the water, wasn’t it? Not some weird, shadowy hand. _Definitely_ not the same kind that had attacked her earlier.

The longer she looked, the harder it was to deny. Instead of her regular shadow stretching out from her feet, hands made completely of shadow drifted lazily about.

_Looks like you saw me,_ chuckled a soft, childish voice in her ear.

Haruhi jumped up, looking around to try to find the source of the voice. Suddenly, her headache was a hundred times worse, making her dizzy and nauseous. “Who’s there?!” she called, doing a better job than she thought she would of hiding the tremor in her voice.

_Oh, don’t worry. We’re the only one here._

“Wh-what’s that supposed to mean?” Haruhi asked. Slowly, she started inching her way back toward the light.

The voice laughed again, and a few of the shadowy hands reached for Haruhi. _Exactly what I said. There’s no-one here but us. Which is good for you, because if anyone knew I was here I would have to make you kill them, and anyone else who happens to be around._

The hands grabbed Haruhi’s legs, forcing her to stop moving. “What do you want?” Haruhi asked weakly.

The voice paused, as if giving it some thought. Somehow, Haruhi knew that it was only doing so for effect. It already knew what it wanted. How _she_ knew that it knew, she had no idea. She didn’t get enough time to wonder about that before it answered, _I want to go home. So all you need to do is let the little Alchemists work, and I’ll take care of the rest._

Before Haruhi could ask the voice anything else, a voice drifted over the sand. “Haruhi?” Hikaru called. “Are you out here?”

The hands disappeared, and Haruhi’s shadow returned to normal. _Don’t say a word, or he’s dead._

Haruhi took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. Panicking would only put people in danger. “Yeah, I’m over here!” she called back, waving to Hikaru. It was sort of weird to see him on his own, but Haruhi didn’t care. She was just grateful that he had interrupted that voice.

Hikaru approached her at a jog. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just getting some fresh air,” Haruhi answered, surprised at how even her voice was. “I was just about to head back in and see what’s for dinner. Would you like to come with me?”

As she and Hikaru headed back inside, Haruhi made her decision. Whatever the voice was, it gave her a horrible feeling. She was going to stop it from doing whatever it was trying to do.

_You can try, Haruhi Fujioka, but you’ll never succeed. I know your every thought. No matter what you do, I will easily defeat you._


	11. The Least Relaxing Beach Episode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which brothers are somewhat reunited, Haruhi(?) and Hitachiins play a game, and two souls have a heart-to-heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OwO what's this? A new chapter so soon?! And it's an extra long one, too!

Alphonse sat as still as he could, focusing. It had only been a few minutes since he had started, but he was starting to wonder if he really could find his body just by concentrating on it. If it were that simple, then half of his and his brother’s journey would have been for nothing. Then again, he had found it once before, when Father had summoned his sacrifices. Hopefully that would make it easier to find it again.

“You’re back, just like you promised.”

Alphonse opened his eyes to find himself in that white void, standing in front of his body. It was smiling up at him, just as welcoming as last time. Part of him wanted to accept that welcoming smile and return to it. But… “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “I can’t reunite with you this time, either.”

His body’s smile didn’t falter, but a note of sadness coloured the expression. “You still think you need to fight.”

Alphonse nodded. “There are people relying on me. I have to keep going, to protect them.”

“There will always be people to protect. Maybe it’s something that I just can’t understand without a soul,” his body sighed. “You look tired. Are you sure you have to keep going?”

“I’m sorry,” Alphonse repeated.

That was all the answer his body needed. “You’re still so noble. I’m proud,” it said, closing its eyes and taking a step aside. “Should I send you back like that again?”

“Actually, I… need your help,” Alphonse said. His body looked up in surprise. “You’re still connected to my- our brother, right? That’s how you’re alive?”

“... Yes.” His body seemed confused.

“Could you open his gate? Just a little? Enough for me to talk to him?” Alphonse asked.

His body paused for a long moment. Or maybe time was just relative in that place, it was hard to tell. Eventually, his body gave a small, uncertain nod. “It’s… risky, but I can try.”

Alphonse gave a relieved smile. “Thank you.”

Within moments, he heard the sound of stone grinding against stone behind him. He turned quickly to see a gate, the same as his own apart from the design on the doors, slowly opening.Shadowy fingers scratched at the crack in the door, but couldn’t seem to force it any further open than it already was. Alphonse took a deep breath and called out.

“Brother!”

 

* * *

 

 

Edward glanced up from the piles of notes scattered in front of him. ‘Hey, Colonel, did you hear that?”

Mustang, seated across from him, looked up as well. “Hear what?”

“... I’m not sure,” Edward admitted. He stood up and stretched. “Maybe three straight days in this room is sending me a little stir crazy.”

“It would help if we’d made any progress,” Mustang added, sitting back and crossing his arms with a frustrated grimace.

Edward wandered around the room, glancing at the notes that littered every flat surface as he passed them. “We don’t even know where to start. Damn it, why can’t I remember what happened?”

_Brother! Can you hear me?!_

“Alphonse?!” Edward gasped, looking around wildly. He could have _sworn_ he had just heard his brother’s voice!

Whatever he had heard, though, Mustang clearly hadn’t heard it. “Maybe you need a break, Fullmetal.”

“No, I’m sure it was Al,” Edward said, sitting back down and closing his eyes. If he focused hard enough, he could almost feel Alphonse’s presence…

_Brother! Finally, I found you!_

“Yeah, good job, Al. But where are you?” Edward muttered, pretty sure that shouting wouldn’t make it any easier for his brother to hear him.

The second of guilty silence from Alphonse was almost audible. _I’m… with Truth._

Edward jumped to his feet, shouting, “What the _hell_ are you doing there?!”

 _I’m sorry, Brother, but I couldn’t think of any other way to find you!_ Alphonse answered. _There’s someone else in your body over here, and he said that right before he got here he saw the Gate of Truth. I think that whatever’s happened has something to do with these gates! And then I remembered my body, and how you being connected to it is the reason you’re so short-_

“I am _not_ some shrimpy pipsqueak who barely reaches the shoulders of little girls!” Edward snapped.

_Um, Brother, I think you’re missing the point-_

“I’ll have you know that I am _quite_ tall right now!”

In the background, Mustang chuckled, “Right, next tell him how you’re so used to being tiny you couldn’t walk after you woke up.”

Edward was clearly about to keep ranting, but paused when something occurred to him. “Wait, Colonel, can you hear Al, too?”

“Nope,” Mustang said, shrugging. “But I  figure either you really _have_ gone stir crazy and you’re hearing things, or you really are talking to Alphonse. Stranger things have happened recently.”

_Oh, is the Colonel there, too? Great! Hawkeye will be glad to know he’s okay._

“Yeah, he’s fine, Al,” Edward said.

_That reminds me, Mori, the person in the Colonel’s body, wanted me to pass on a message. He says to tell Mitsukuni he’s alright. And Tamaki, the person in your body, said to say the same about him to the host club… whoever they are._

“I’ll pass on the message,” Edward said before turning to Mustang. “Any idea who ‘Mitsukuni’ is?”

Mustang nodded. “Yeah, he’s that Honey kid.”

“Right,” Edward said with a nod, before turning his attention back to Alphonse. “How’s everything going back home?”

There was another pause at that.

“... Al?”

_Um. Things are… bad. We’ve saved as many people as we can, but…_

“Is Winry alright? A-and Teacher? What happened?!” Edward asked, a note of panic entering his tone. Mustang went noticeably tense, listening carefully.

_Th-they’re fine! No-one we know has been hurt… I think. I don’t know where Mei or Ling are, though. I- I’m sure they’re fine! They’re strong, and they were together, so…_

Edward sat back down with a sigh. “Damn it… We’re coming back soon, okay Al? We’ve just got to figure out how to do it. If it has anything to do with human transmutation, we’re screwed.”

 _Brother… If the Gates really are involved, then it must be related to-_ Alphonse cut himself off with a short shout of surprise.

“Al?! Alphonse?!” Edward yelled.

 _I’m okay! But the Gate’s opening too wide, I can’t stay here! I’ll be back as soon as I can!_ With that, Alphonse’s presence left, and Edward opened his eyes.

Mustang leaned forward, staring at Edward over his steepled hands. “What did you find out, Fullmetal?” he asked, his voice heavy.

“It sounds like Hawkeye is still alive,” Edward said, wanting to start with some good news.

Mustang didn’t relax. “And the rest of my men?”

“I’m… not sure,” Edward said. “He didn’t get enough time to say anything about them.”

With a deep breath, Mustang closed his eyes for a moment before nodding to himself and looking back up. “Alright. What else did you learn?”

“Well… we know for sure now that Mori and Tamaki are in our bodies, so we don’t have to worry about them lying around soulless anywhere,” Edward said, trying to think of any other good news he could pass along before the one big piece of bad news. With nothing else to say, though, he had to get to it. “And… it looks like all this is related to human transmutation.”

“Damn it,” Mustang growled. “So how are we supposed to get back, then? We can’t used human transmutation, so what else…?”

Edward sat back and stared at the ceiling. It was just as useful as staring at the notes they had wasted three days on. “Who knows? Last time something like this happened, I had to use Envy’s philosopher's stone to transmute myself and Ling out of there. Heh, where’s a Sin when you need one, right?”

 

Honey had hardly let Haruhi out of his sight since they arrived. It had been three days of constantly finding activities to keep her occupied, even if it was something as simple as doing their schoolwork together. Honestly, it would have actually been really fun if it weren’t for the horrible, choking feeling around Haruhi that wouldn’t go away. Even the twins (who had been either joining in or watching from afar the whole time) said that they felt it sometimes, too.

“Haruhi! Let’s go swimming!” Honey called, latching on to Haruhi’s arm.

“Wh- Honey-senpai, it’s way too cold for swimming,” Haruhi said. “Besies, I’m kinda tired today. I was just going to try to relax a bit.”

Honey pouted a little, refusing to let go. “Then let’s do something else together! I’m bored!”

Haruhi sighed, patting Honey’s head. “I guess you’re pretty lonely without Mori-senpai, huh?”

That made Honey flinch. He had been exaggerating it to keep Haruhi near him, but… she had a point. He really was lonely without Takashi. “I- I…” he sniffled, not sure what to say.

“I’ll play with you soon, I promise,” Haruhi said with a warm smile. “I just need to go get some schoolwork done first, okay? Why don’t you ask the Twins or Kyoya to keep you company for now?”

With that, she started to walk off, only to be ambushed by the twins.

“Aw,poor senpai, you’re leaving him all alone?” one of them asked, leaning on Haruhi’s shoulder.

The other echoed the movement and said, “You at least have time to play a game with us, right? Just for a few minutes?”

“Guys, I really just want to-” Haruhi started.

The twins interrupted. “Let’s play the which one is Hikaru game!” they said, each putting on a cap with a flourish. They circled around her with sly grins.

Haruhi sighed. “Really? Right now? Fine.” She pointed at one of the twins and said, “You’re Hikaru.”

Both twins stopped, their expression dropping. “... That’s wrong,” they said in unison.

Haruhi froze with an awkward smile. “W-well, better luck next time, I guess. It’s a fifty-fifty chance, so I’ll get it eventually!”

One of the twins shook his head. “No, Haruhi always gets it right.”

“Who are you, really?” the other demanded.

Haruhi sighed, closing her eyes with a chuckle. “Looks like I took full control too soon, didn’t I?”

Honey barely had time to register that Haruhi’s shadow was moving before that bad feeling peaked. “Look out!” he yelled, tackling one of the twins out of the way. Something flew by them, managing to slice into the twin’s side. If Honey hadn’t acted, it would have stabbed right through his chest.

“Kaoru!” the other twin screamed, running to his brother’s side. Honey was on his feet in an instant, standing between the twins and whoever was pretending to be Haruhi.

“Really, it’s her fault it came to this. I did warn her about what would happen if anyone found out,” the stranger said with a shrug, circling Honey and the twins like a shark. Honey made sure to keep guarding the twins as the stranger continued, “What did she think she would accomplish when she told me the wrong answer for that stupid game?”

Honey almost stumbled at that. Was the stranger trying to say that Haruhi was still there with them?! “Who are you? What did you do to Haru-chan?!” Honey demanded.

“You can call me Pride. And you don’t have to worry about your friend. She’s surprisingly strong to have survived so long with all these other souls. Although I’m sure her willpower will be destroyed once I finish killing you all.”

An instant before the stranger stopped talking, Haruhi’s shadow moved again, stabbing at Honey. He only just had enough time to side-step it, sending the shadowy arm slamming into the ground and shattering the polished marble floor.

“Hikaru, Kaoru, can you move?” Honey asked, trying to keep between them and the stranger.

By that point, Kaoru had a hand over his wound and was leaning heavily on Hikaru, but at least he was standing. “Yeah, it’s just a graze. I’ll be fine,” he said with a tense grin. Judging by the amount of blood slipping through Kaoru’s fingers, that was a blatant lie.

“You two get out of here, get help,’ Honey ordered.

Pride laughed. “You really think I would let them-?” it started to say, only to cut off with a choked sound when Honey rushed it, aiming a kick for it’s chest. It only just managed to dodge back, catching Honey’s foot with a shadow and throwing him across the room. Honey flipped in midair, landing on his feet and using the momentum of the throw to rush Pride again. As long as he could distract it long enough for the twins to get away-!

Honey let out a shout of pain as one of the shadows tore into his shoulder, forcing him to skid to a stop. Still, he was glad to see the twins reach the door and hurry out. Hopefully they would find someone quickly. Honey wasn’t sure how long he would last.

 

Kaoru was having trouble breathing. It was sort of weird that he noticed something like that through all the pain lancing up from his side, but that was what he was focused on. It was making it hard to run. At least Hikaru was there to help him.

“Just a little further, Kyoya’s room is just up ahead,” Hikaru said, half-dragging his brother down the hallway.

Wait, that wasn’t where they were supposed to be going. Kaoru shook his head, gesturing in a different direction. “If that thing… is from… Ed and Mustang’s world… then we should get them… to help. Honey-senpai… is… alone with that thing…”

“I know!” Hikaru snapped. “But I can’t just let you bleed to death!” He burst into Kyoya’s room without even bothering to knock and locked the door behind him as if it would keep that _thing_ out.

For a moment, Kyoya looked panicked before regaining his usual in-control demanure. “What happened?” he demanded, already inspecting Kaoru’s wound. “Lay him down on the bed, try to keep this cut above his heart.”

Hikaru quickly did as he was told, laying his brother down on his uninjured side. Kaoru grabbed Hikaru’s hand. “I’ll be... fine. Go... get Honey-senpai some... help,” he said. Hikaru wavered for a moment before nodding and running off.

“I’m not a doctor, Kaoru. I don’t know how much I can do,” Kyoya said, hid voice shaking a little.

Kaoru chuckled. “Aw, you… really do care.”

Kyoya frowned. “I’m being serious.” He finished inspecting the wound and grabbed a nearby blanket, using it to put pressure on the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

“I know, I know,” Kaoru sighed, trying not to flinch in pain. “But Honey-senpai… still needs help.”

“Why? Where is he? What happened?” Kyoya asked again.

Kaoru closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He was starting to get dizzy. “It was… Haruhi. Or- not her, but… whatever was… pretending to be her…” He did his best to explain what happened, but he honestly wasn’t sure of the details himself, so it was difficult.

Even so, Kyoya gave a small, solemn nod before focusing back on Kaoru’s wound. “We’ll just have to trust that Honey can fight that thing off until help arrives.”

 

Edward heard the sound of someone running closer a moment before the door burst open, revealing one of the Hitachiin twins. It was strange to see him without the other one (whichever one that was). Seeing how afraid he looked, though, Edward and Mustang were both on their feet in an instant.

“You’ve gotta help! Haurhi, she’s- It isn’t her, it’s something else!” the Hitachiin said before collapsing to his knees, shivering violently.

Mustang knelt by his side, putting a hand on his shoulder while trying to see why Hiakru was covered in blood. “Is anyone injured?” he asked when he was unable to find any wound.

Hikaru nodded. “It- It stabbed Kaoru with some shadow- hand- _thing_!”

“Pride…!” Edward gasped. He bolted out the door, clapping his hands together and running one along the wall to gather up material for a weapon.

“Damn it, Fullmetal, don’t run off on your own!” Mustang yelled.

Edward ignored him. Cursing the huge hallways and many rooms, he listened closely for the sound of fighting. A _crash_ from a few rooms away gave him the direction to head for. Instead of trying to navigate the house any longer, Edward just made his own doors and headed straight for the noise.

The second he entered the large, open dining room, he was almost hit by a piece of flying rubble. He ducked back behind the doorway and peeked into the room, trying to get a read on the situation.

Honey was doing an impressive job of dodging, given the fact that he probably hadn’t ever faced an enemy like Pride before. As good as he was, though, dodging wasn’t going to defeat Pride.

As if Honey had somehow heard Edward, he suddenly darted forward, ducked under a shadow arm, and rushed toward Pride. The Sin stumbled back, panic flashing across Pride’s face for a moment. He didn’t have time to counter before Honey flipped him over his shoulder, slamming him into the ground. In less than a second, Honey was on top of Pride, his arm pulled back for a devastating attack. But…

“Haru-chan…” Honey whimpered, trembling. “I… I can’t…”

Pride -or maybe Haruhi- shuddered before reaching up to cup Honey’s face with their hand. “Honey-senpai…” they said softly, giving a pained smile. “You really are… so stupid.”

With a grin, Pride grabbed Honey by the back of the neck and pulled him suddenly downward, disorienting him with a headbut before pushing him upward with a barrage of shadowy hands. Honey slammed into the roof, hitting his head and going limp.

“Honey!” Edward yelled, rushing forward, “Damn it, you idiot, you-!” Before he could get anywhere, Edward was tripped up by his unfamiliar body, giving Pride ample opportunity to slam him into the wall.

Pride laughed, stumbling to his feet. It took him a moment to get his balance and look between his captured opponents. “You have _no idea_ how much I want to kill you. But I do need you to send me home,” he said, staring at Edward. Slowly, he looked upward, seemingly unbothered by the blood dripping from Honey down onto his face. “I’ll just have to settle for killing this one instead.”

“No!” Edward screamed, struggling against the hands holding him down. He couldn’t even push himself an inch off the wall. Pride took a deep, almost relieved breath, sending two shadow hands hurtling toward Honey’s neck.

And then he paused.

 

Pried blinked up at his arms, confused. They… weren’t moving. He tried again to push them forward to skewer the child. Again, they were still, other than some tense shaking.  
“That’s… unusual,” Pride muttered to himself.

_Dont worry, Honey-senpai. I can’t, either._

Pride sighed, trying to push past Haruhi’s will. “You don’t really think you’re stronger than me, do you?”

_I’m not going to let you kill my friends. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last three days, it’s that you’re strong… but you’re dying, aren’t you?_

Pride couldn’t help clenching his fists at that. “I’m not…! This is temporary. I’ll regain my strength soon enough.”

Haruhi’s ‘voice’ grew soft, almost caring. _You’re hurt, and you’re lost in a completely new world. Anyone would be scared in your situation._

“I’m not _scared_!” Pride snapped, his shadow lashing around like angry waves.

 _Pride, I’m literally in your head. You can’t lie to me,_ Haruhi said. _Besides, you just want to go home, right? So do Ed and Mustang. Why don’t you try asking them for help?_

Pride wavered for a moment. Asking for help? He couldn’t, right? He had always been in control. Asking for help would just be letting them take advantage of him. Besides, why would they help him? He turned to Edward, seeing the hatred behind the panic in his eyes.

“You’re an idiot,” Pride hissed.

_Maybe. But I’m the only idiot you’ve got right now._

Pride sat down, curling his knees up to his chest. “... I don’t need you.”

Haruhi ignored that statement. _We sort of got off on the wrong foot, didn’t we? Why don’t we start over?_ she asked. _Hi. My name is Haruhi Fujioka. What’s yours?_

“This is stupid.”

Haruhi kept waiting expectantly.

With a sigh, Pride let Honey and Edward go. “... Hello, Haruhi. I’m… Selim Bradley.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: While I did have some idea of what I wanted to happen in this chapter, I usually don't know exactly what will happen until I sit down and write. For example, in the first, dot-point version of this chapter, Kaoru didn't get hurt at all. In fact, he was never even attacked.


	12. A Host's Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tamaki makes some friends, Haruhi makes some progress, and Winry learns what a host is.

Tamaki stared up at Alphonse, a little worried. He didn’t like seeing him so still.  ~~ Still like those people in the sewers ~~ ~~.~~ “So he’s… in that weird place with the gate?” he asked Hawkeye.

“That’s what he told me,” Hawkeye said with a nod.

They were silent for a while before Tamaki sighed, “I wish we could help him.”

Hawkeye gave a small, sympathetic hum. “I know. I’ve always worried about him. And Edward, too. But they’ve been through enough to know what they’re capable of by now. Alphonse thinks he can do this, even if he has to do it alone,” she said. “But even if we can’t help him, there are other people we can help while we’re waiting for him to get back.”

Tamaki looked up at the people around him. The people scattered around the tunnel were pale with hollow, sunken-in eyes. Hopelessness seemed to roll off them in waves, leaving a sick, unsettled feeling sitting heavily in Tamaki’s gut. It was clear to see that most of them had given up. “Yeah… You’re right,” Tamaki said, getting up and dusting himself off. “I’ve been forgetting my responsibilities as a host! It’s my duty to make everyone happy! Come, Mori! We have work to do!”

Mori gave a small smile, nodding. “Where do we start?” he asked.

“I do need to hand out rations,” Hawkeye said. “There are some people I want to check on, to see how they’re holding up, too.”

It didn’t take long to gather up a few more volunteers to begin handing out food and medicine. After all, there were too many people with them for even Tamaki to reach everyone in the limited time they had. And as confident as he had tried to sound when he was talking about duty, he wasn’t sure what he could do for those people, not while he was so shaken.

Still, he had to try. Giving his best smile, he approached the nearest group of people. They seemed like a family, with two kids huddled against an older man’s side. “Good evening, everyone!” he said, hoping he didn’t sound as fake as he felt. He held out some rations (in the careful portion that Hawkeye had instructed him to give it out in) “I come bearing gifts!” The children perked up at the sight of food, immediately rushing to grab some. Of course, Tamaki made sure to save a portion for the old man.

The old man looked up as Tamaki approached. His eyes were… so empty. “Hey, kid,” the man said, “you’re always hanging around Lieutenant Hawkeye, right? Do you know what it’s going to be like at Youswell?”

That wasn’t really a question that Tamaki knew how to answer. After all, he had been avoiding learning too much about the overall situation. He had to hold on to what hope he had left. Hope that he had to do his best to spread. “W-well, we’ll only be there for a short while! I’m sure it’ll be fine!”

The man didn’t look convinced. “Will those monsters be there? They can’t die… What do we do if they’re there?”

It was the first group, and Tamaki was already overwhelmed with the questions. With how empathetic he was, the fog of misery that had settled over everyone seemed to be choking him.

He took a deep breath. If Kyoya was there, what would he say? What advice would he give? He would have the solution, Tamaki was sure of it. But Tamaki, as well as he knew Kyoya, couldn’t imagine what he would say in such a nonsensical situation. So he had to rely on himself.

“If they are, then I suppose we’ll have to deal with that when we get there,” he sighed with a tired smile. “I prefer to focus on the now. For example, right now, you have these kids, and everyone else around us. We’re moving forward. That’s what’s important, isn’t it? We don’t have to… dwell on the past, or the future.”

“Maybe you’re right… My children are safe right now. That is… very important,” the man said, nodding. He accepted the rations, talking to Tamaki a little longer about his children and properly introducing them. It was quite relaxing.

Finally, Tamaki was back in his element. From there, he was able to easily move from group to group, talking to people and lifting their spirits the best he could. He couldn’t help everyone, of course, but he tried hard for each and every one of them. It felt good to be useful.

After a few hours, Tamaki met Mori and Hawkeye back at Alphonse’s side. He had hoped that Alphonse would be awake by the time he got back, but he had no such luck. “It’s a  shame,” he sighed, putting a hand on Alphonse’s shoulder. “I was hoping you would be able to tell me how everyone back home is holding up without me. I bet they’re worried. I mean, without their king there they wouldn’t know what to do, right? They would have no idea… Haruhi is trying her best to get me back, I’m sure. My little girl wouldn’t abandon me. The twins might actually be taking this seriously. Honey-senpai is strong, but he’s surely devastated without Mori there. Hah… I bet even Kyoya is worried.”

Tamaki sat down, leaning back against Alphonse. “That brother of yours, and the guy Hawkeye is so worried about… They probably want to get home as much as I do right now. Which means they’re going to figure this out, right…?”

Everything was quiet for a few moments. Then Alphonse twitched.  A second later he jumped, letting out a small scream before looking around and realizing where he was. “Br- Ah- Tamaki!” he said, sounding relieved. “I made it back safe… That was a close one!”

“Is- Is something wrong back home?” Tamaki asked, feeling himself beng suddenly and roughly pushed under that fog of despair.

“Oh, no, that’s not it! It was just the Gate that was dangerous, that’s all!” Alphonse quickly corrected. “I didn’t get to talk to Brother for very long, but it didn’t sound like anything dangerous was happening when I did.”

Tamaki sighed in relief, but didn’t get to ask any follow-up questions before Hawkeye approached. “Alphonse, you’re back,” she noted. “Did you talk to him?”

“Yeah. He’s safe, and so is the Colonel,” Alphonse said. Hawkeye visibly relaxed at that, and only grew more so as Alphonse continued. “He and Ed are working on getting home right now. It… might take a little while, but I know that they can do it!”

“That’s good to hear,” Hawkeye said with a small smile. “As much as I’d like to let you rest after all that, we need to keep moving soon. Will that be alright?”

Alphonse nodded, pushing himself to his feet. “I want to get somewhere safe before Brother comes back.”

“Good, we’ll be back on the move in five minutes.”

 

* * *

 

Things were… a little awkward around Haruhi after she had talked Selim down. Even though they had come to a sort of understanding, Selim wasn’t willing to let Haruhi have control again.

“You’ll only drop your friend if you do,” he huffed, lowering Honey back to the ground and letting go of Edward. “Cracking this child’s skull would hardly endear me to anyone, no matter how satisfying it would be.”

“You know, saying you want to isn’t any more ‘endearing’ than actually doing it, Pride,” Edward said, dusting himself off and moving closer. As he did, he picked up the weapon he had dropped during the fight without taking his eyes off of Selim. Haruhi could understand that, even if it didn’t help the situation.

_ I really think you should let me talk to him, _ she suggested.

“And let you be in control again?” Pride scoffed. “I may have agreed with your idiotic plan, but I’m not a fool. I simply don’t have any other options.”

Edward paused. “Who… Who are you talking to?”

“Haruhi, of course. She’s an exceptionally strong vessel. She would be a perfect host, if she would just shut up and let me do things my way,” Selim said with a shrug.

That was about the moment when Mustang, followed closely by Hikaru, burst in. For a second, everything was still. Haruhi could feel Selim tense up.  _ Are you… afraid of Mustang? _ For a moment, Haruhi could swear she saw something about Selim’s allies, and… fire. A lot of it.

“I’m not scared. He’s just… a nuisance, that’s all,” Selim lied. To anyone but Haruhi, it might have been convincing.

“What’s going on?” Mustang demanded, walking forward confidently.

Selim took a step back, his shadow rising up. With the contrast of the darkness behind him, it was easy to see how pale he had gotten. Though, strangely enough, Mustang went pale and tense as well at the sight of it. Maybe they had fought before?

_ I really think you should let me talk, _ Haruhi suggested. Selim was just making things worse.

He wavered for a moment before nodding slightly. “Just for a minute,” he said. He was trying for a snappish tone, but there was the slightest waver there that sabotaged the whole effort.

Haruhi sighed in relief as she regained control. It was a weird kind of feeling, like recovering from pins and needles, but not quite. For a second she could feel that shadow as if it was an extra limb, but without Selim in control it quickly returned to normal.

“It’s okay now, really. I talked him out of it,” she said, kneeling down near Honey. He was really hurt. “He sure caused a lot of trouble, huh? Oh, I’m, uh, me again. Haruhi.” That sure felt weird to have to clarify. Then again, everything was weird, so it shouldn’t have been a problem.

“How can we know that?!” Hikaru snapped. “You think you can just go back to pretending to be Haruhi?! I don’t believe it, not for a second!”

Haruhi wasn’t sure what to say to that. Anything she tried would probably be taken as a lie…

Finally, Edward spoke up. “They…  _ did _ stop attacking, even though they were winning. They could have killed Honey, but they didn’t.”

“Speaking of that… can we get Honey-senpai some help before we keep talking? He’s… bleeding really badly,” Haruhi said, going to pick Honey up.

Hikaru got to him first, though. “I’ll take him. I don’t want you near Kaoru.”

That honestly hurt a little, even if Hikaru had good reason to say it. “Hikaru…” Haruhi sighed. “Alright. I can’t blame you for being cautious. You just want to keep everyone safe, right? I know you’d do the same to protect me if it were anyone else with Selim. So you go on ahead. I’ll prove that I’m me some other time.”

Hikaru paused for a moment, looking halfway convinced. He might have even stayed to figure things out, had Honey not stirred slightly and reminded him what he was supposed to be doing.

“Did… I do it…?” Honey asked. “Is everyone… okay…?”

“... Yeah. Everyone’s fine now,” Hikaru said, setting off to get Honey some help.

Haruhi waited until he was definitely gone to relax a little. Though, she wasn’t entirely out of the woods yet. Mustang and Edward were still looking at her.

_ Now that we’re alone, they’re going to try to kill us, _ Selim said, pushing for control. Haruhi could feel her shadow again.

“Just wait, Selim,” Haruhi scolded.

“You know more about these Sins than me, Fullmetal,” Mustang said without taking his eyes off of Haruhi. “Is it possible that Haruhi’s still alive?”

Edward sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I think so, but there’s no way to tell for sure. Either way, we do kinda need a Sin around to get home, anyway.”

“That’s true,” Mustang sighed. “Alright. Haruhi, Pride, whoever you are, we’re going to keep an eye on you until we can figure out what’s going on. And regardless of whether or not Haruhi is really in there, Pride, I’m expecting you to cooperate with us. Think of it as repayment for what you did to me.”

“What do you mean by ‘corporate’? What does he have to do?” Haruhi asked.

Mustang turned, gesturing for Haruhi to follow him as he talked. She did so, and noticed Edward following along behind her as if making sure she didn’t run off. “If you are Haruhi, this isn’t going to mean much to you,” Mustang said, “but we need Pride to help us fuel a human transmutation. It might be our only way back to our original bodies.”

_ And how am I supposed to do that? _ Selim huffed.  _ I’m still… regaining my strength from the last time I did that. _

“Um… He said that last time really hurt him. It might be a while before he can do that again. Whatever ‘that’ is,” Haruhi said.

Mustang laughed bitterly. “Oh really?  _ He _ was hurt?” Before Haruhi could ask what he meant by that, they arrived at her room. “You should stay here for now. Fullmetal, you said you’ve done this before. Do you think you can do it again once Prise has recovered enough to fuel it?”

“Yeah, no sweat,” Edward said with a nod.

“Good. Can you go get ready, then? Well start as soon as Pride can cover the cost.”

From there, Haruhi ended up locked in her room. She didn’t like it, but she understood. At least Mustang was sitting outside in the hall rather than in her room. That gave her a little bit of privacy without everyone being worried that Selim was unsupervised.

“So they want to use you for fuel for some of their magic, huh?” Haruhi asked, lying down on the bed in a doomed attempt to relax.

_ Yes. The alchemy they want to use always comes with a cost. It’s quite amusing when it happens to the humans. Not so much when I have to give up part of my Philosopher's Stone. _

“Your what?”

_ Consider it like my heart. _

Haruhi put a hand over her own heart, frowning a little. They were supposed to use Selim’s heart for fuel? “Right… Um, sorry if this is rude, but… what  _ are _ you, anyway? How can you give up some of your heart and still be alive?”

_ As if I would die as easily as a mortal like you, _ Pride laughed.  _ I’m a Homunculus. Not that you would understand what that means. _

“That’s why I asked,” Haruhi said.

_ Fine. I will use small words. Homunculi and our Philosopher's Stones are made out of human souls. Father created us to assist him. Of course, this little…  _ detour _ won’t be enough for him to melt me down and re-create me as he did with Greed. I just need to return and make sure he knows I didn’t leave by choice, and I will be safe. I am his favourite, after all. _

“That’s… horrible.”

_ Hah, I knew it. All humans react the same when they find out what we are- _

“No, not that. I mean- that’s not good, but you didn’t really get a choice about being made,” Haruhi said, sitting up and wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to hug Pride. “What I mean is… you really think your dad will  _ melt _ you if he thinks you left? What kind of a dad would do that?”

Selim was stunned into silence for a moment.  _ He’s… not my ‘dad’. Besides, as long as we do as we’re told- _

“Is that really what you want out of life?” Haruhi asked. “You said you were ‘Pride’, right? Is that really something that makes you proud of yourself?” Selim had no answer for that, so Haruhi continued. “Wouldn’t it be better to live in a way that made you happy, rather than just doing whatever ‘Father’ wants?”

_ And what if doing as I’m told is what makes me proud of myself? _

“Does it?”

Once again, Pride couldn’t answer.

 

* * *

 

Tamaki was exhausted. He couldn’t tell how long they had been walking, but was relieved when Hawkeye finally announced that they had made it to Youswell.

“We’ll have a few scouts see if it’s safe up there. If it is, we’ll get to rest in the sunlight for once,” she said, sounding almost as relieved by that as Tamaki felt. It seemed as if the scouts took hours, but finally they returned.

“It’s completely clear. Not a trace of the Legion. I don’t think they’ve made it out this far yet,” the scout leader said.

Hawkeye nodded, thinking for a moment. “In that case, we can let the civilians above ground for a while. We’ll stay close to the entrance to the mines and post guards around the perimeter.” With that decided, the soldiers in the area ran off to go do what Hawkeye said.

A few minutes later, as they were heading toward the exit to the mines, Winry approached Tamaki with a smile. “Hey, looks like we’ll be leaving the mines soon. This’ll be your first time seeing the sun in this world, won’t it?”

“Oh. It… hadn’t occurred to me, but yes,” Tamaki said, returning Winry’s smile. As tired as he was, Winry had a way of lifting his spirits. “I wonder if it looks any different here than it does back home?”

“What’s your home like, anyway?” Winry asked, falling into step beside Tamaki.

Tamaki thought for a moment. “Well… I suppose it’s pretty ordinary, really. Luxurious, to be sure, and not as… dangerous as here.”

“It’s… not always like this here,” Winry said with an awkward chuckle.

“Oh, of course,” Tamaki laughed. “I couldn’t imagine anyone living like this constantly. But… I suppose just because I can’t imagine something, doesn’t make it impossible. All of…  _ this _ has proven that.”

Winry nodded. “I gotta say, you’re acting pretty calm about everything.”

“I suppose I’m a better actor than I thought, then! To be completely honest with you, this has been stressful, to say the least.” Tamaki posed dramatically, or as dramatically as he could with a stranger’s form. “But a host much hold himself up as a shining example of humanity. It wouldn’t do to be visibly upset when morale is already so low.”

“A host, huh? What is that, anyway?” Winry asked.

“Why, it is a handsome boy with too much time on his hands who entertains ladies who also have way too much time on their hands,” Tamaki said with a grin. “It is our solemn duty to make every young lady happy.”

With a smile, Winry patted Tamaki’s shoulder. “You’re doing a great job. A lot of people have noticed you lifting everyone’s spirits. Just remember to let yourself take a break, too, okay? You can’t help anyone if you burn out, you know.”

“I’ll try,” Tamaki said, with no intention of doing that. If he stopped for too long, he started thinking about the sewers again. It was much easier to just keep talking to people and helping them. Focusing on the present. That was the plan.

Speaking of the present, they had finally reached the entrance to the mines. Of course, the soldiers were the first to exit, checking the perimeter to be sure it was safe, before letting civilians exit and begin to find places to rest. Tamaki, though, found himself standing at the entrance, staring up at the sky.

“Are you okay?” Winry asked quietly.

“Y-yeah. I was just thinking…” Tamaki wiped his eyes, wishing the tears that welled up weren’t blocking his vision. “... The sky… looks just like this back home.”

Winry took Tamaki’s hand (the flesh-and-blood one, not the metal one). “You’ll get back there. Ed and Al are working on it right now. They’re a little reckless, but they’re a lot more dependable than they seem. No matter what they’re doing, they always find a way to do it eventually.”

For a moment, Tamaki just stared up at the soft blue sky, watching the thin, wispy clouds roll by. Then, with a deep breath, he lowered his gaze toward the people under it. “Well then, in the meantime, I should help in any way I can. Would you care to join me, Winry?”

Winry nodded, and they both set out to help the other refugees.

 

It was ten minutes of relative peace before the first scream rang out. Tamaki turned toward the sound, already trembling. It had come from the well, where he and Winry had just been. Part of him wanted to run away, to avoid whatever it was that had gone wrong now. Another part of him remembered the children who had been playing there.

That second part won out. Clenching his fists to hid the shaking, he ran toward the scream. There had been a second, and a third, then a chorus of confused, frightened sound. In the commotion, he almost didn’t notice Winry running beside him. In any normal circumstance, he would have told her to run the other way, that a conflict like that was no place for her, but honestly… a selfish part of him felt better with her there, even if that meant they were both running toward unknown danger.

Less than a minute later, they reached the center of town, where the well was. It was like a scene from Tamaki’s nightmares.

“I have to say, you’ve all done very well to make it this far,” the man chuckled. Blood dripped from both of his swords. Guards’ bodies littered the ground by his feet. “But I’m afraid I can’t allow you to go any further.” He raised a sword, and Tamaki knew he was going to die.


	13. God, Grant Mercy to the Avaricious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tamaki has regrets, Bradley increases his kill count, and Greed fails to save someone.

Tamaki was vaguely aware of someone shouting in the background. Were they talking to him? He couldn’t tell. The sound was strangely muffled. That seemed right. A moment of relative silence before he died. Wasn’t his life supposed to flash before his eyes? Really, there was only one thing (other than his inevitable death) that he was thinking of:

_I never got to tell Haruhi that I-_

Tamaki’s thought was cut off by the sound of two gunshots, and the realization that the man wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was looking behind him instead, right at Hawkeye. She and Alphonse were running closer, already preparing to fight.

“Tamaki!” Winry hissed, pulling him aside and pointing to a ruined building that was _far_ too close to the man. “There a children in there! We have to get them away from Bradley.”

Tamaki glanced between the building and Bradley. Could they even reach the kids? Bradley _was_ distracted by Hawkeye and Alphonse… “Alright,” Tamaki said, nodding and drawing the gun that Hawkeye had given him.

Winry went even more tense at the sight of the gun, but didn’t comment on it. Instead, she nodded and gestured toward a different building, closer to them and further from Bradley. “If we stay low and stick to cover, we should be able to get to them. We’ve gotta go fast, though. I don’t know how long Al and Hawkeye will be able to distract him.”

 

Bradley hadn’t wanted to turn his back on the Fullmetal boy, but something was unusual about him. Not only had he frozen, but Bradley’s eye hadn’t warned him of any danger, even when he was staring right at him. Somehow, he had become no threat at all.

Lieutenant Hawkeye and Alphonse, however, hadn’t changed a bit. They still registered as minors threat individually, and a higher threat together. So, as much as he wanted to remove Fullmetal from the equation, it made more sense to focus on Alphonse and Hawkeye.

Especially since Hawkeye was, at that moment, shooting at him. A regular man would have been dead in seconds. Of course, Bradley was able to side-step the initial bullets easily. It took two bullets before Hawkeye began to adjust for his dodging, meaning he needed to pay attention to her. Two shots after that, he could tell Hawkeye had figured out she had no chance of actually hitting him. No matter how good her aim was, she couldn’t make the bullets move faster than him.

Of course, by that point Alphonse had reached him. It was then that Bradley realized he had never actually fought Alphonse. He had hardly ever actually seen him fighting, really, since he wasn’t military and hadn’t trained under Bradley’s watchful eye. A new opponent, plus Hawkeye’s covering fire, was actually a little irritating.

“Well now, this is new,” Bradley said with a good natured chuckle as he sidestepped the boy’s attacks. “Come now, Alphonse Elric, you know this won’t end well for you.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else!” Alphonse said, trying and failing to land a hit. It was disappointing, really.

“Let me?” Bradley laughed “Why now, I don’t think I ever needed your _permission_.” With a flourish, Bradley quickly severed Alphonse’s right arm and left leg, sending the boy topping to the ground with a stunned cry. “Well, will you look at that. Now you and your brother almost match. I’ve got to say, after everything you boys have done, it’s almost a shame to have to kill you both. You were such promising children. But so troublesome.”

Alphonse looked around desperately, trying to find a way to escape. Hawkeye ran forward, still shooting without much luck.

Bradley frowned. “Now, now, I’d like you to pay attention while I’m-”

“ ** _Bradley!_** ”

Oh. That was a rather familiar voice. And a rather angry one, too. Bradley barely had time to turn and block the new challenger’s potentially deadly strike. A half-second later, and his head would have been separated from his body.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Greed,” Bradley said, approaching with both swords drawn.

“You know, I’m pretty tired of you killing what’s mine,” Greed snarled, charging forward.

Greed never managed to slip past Wrath’s defense, but Wrath (barely trying) managed to crave a gash into Greed’s side. “This is getting frustrating, Greed. You’re only going to get yourself recreated again, you know,” Bradley warned him. “I’m tired of this spectacle.”

With that, Bradley stopped playing defensively and started to push forward. Usually, that would make Greed fall back to a better position. Even when he didn’t have his Shield up, he always focused on outlasting his foes. Though, he wasn’t doing that. Instead, the harder Bradley pushed, the more reckless Greed became.

“Have I done something to upset you, Greed?” Bradley asked.

“You know what you’ve done, you bastard!” Greed snapped. His attacks grew more desperate. Sloppier. “I’m not gonna let you kill one more person! They’re all mine! This world is mine, and you’re not welcome in it anymore!”

Curious, Wrath allowed Greed to press forward for a few moments. He never let Greed actually land a hit, of course. With that shield on Greed’s arms, a solid blow would do quite a bit of damage. It didn’t help that Bradley was still injured from the Promised Day and the cave-in. “How do you plan to eject me from this world of yours, then?”

“I’m gonna kill you, obviously!” Greed kept pressing forward, and Bradley noticed the entrance to Youswell’s mines behind him.

So they planned to use a cave-in to delay him again, did they? Bradley didn’t particularly feel like being buried alive again. He switched back to the offensive, suddenly kicking Greed in the side he had already sliced open. Greed went flying, smashing through the wall to one of the buildings, and Bradley quickly followed through the hole.

“Honestly, I’m surprised at how little you remember, Greed. I’ve killed you before, I can do it again,” Bradley sighed, stabbing two of his swords into Greed’s gut before he could regenerate and drawing two more. He kept slashing at Greed as he continued to talk. “There is something different this time, though. You see, when I killed you before, I was supposed to bring you back to Father. But this time…” He jammed both swords into Greed’s neck, watching him try to regenerate over and over around the solid steel. “This time I’m under orders to kill anyone trying to escape Amestris. Including you.”

Bradley watched with a grin as Greed’s eyes went wide with realization. “H-heh… Sorry… Ling. Looks like… I couldn’t get you home… after all…”

Bradley could see the moment that Greed realized that he was going to die for real, that time. Bradley was intimately familiar with that look. He had seen it many time on the men he faced. Though, with Greed, the expression was sweet enough for Bradley to pause a moment to savour it. After all, Greed really had _pissed him off_.

And then, just as Greed finally went limp, the world collapsed around Bradley yet again, crushing him beneath the stone and wood of the entire building.

 

Scar stood outside, one hand clenched at his side and the other pressed flat against the ruined wall of the building. He stood at the ready for a few moments, scanning the rubble for movement. Last time Bradley had been caught like that, it must have taken him some time to dig himself out of the rubble. If he had gotten out immediately, he would have caught up to the refugees while they were still underground. Not only that, but from the looks of things Bradley didn’t heal from his injuries the same way Greed did. He didn’t regenerate. It was possible that, just by surviving enough battles, they may be able to wear Bradley down enough to kill him.

Scar wasn’t counting on it, though. He waited, slowly counting through two minutes, before starting to back away. It seemed that Bradley was down, for the moment. And Greed…

He should have had his shield up from the beginning. Instead, he had charged in without thinking, and Scar had been too late to save him.

Scar paused for a moment longer, bowing his head. _God, hear me. Many souls have just been returned to you. Please accept them into your loving arms. Please grant these poor lost souls everlasting peace and salvation. Please offer your mercy and forgiveness to Greed as well._

 

Hawkeye moved as fast as she could, one of Alphonse’s arms over his shoulder to help him walk alongside her. They had to find Tamai and Winry, get to the rest of the group, and get somewhere safe. Crossing the desert in their condition would be impossible, but staying in Youswell would be suicide. Where could they go, though?

No, she had to worry about that later. “Alphonse, did you see where Winry and Tamaki went?”

“I think… that building,” Alphonse said, gesturing to a nearby house.

Hawkeye nodded, hurrying over to the door. “Tamaki? Winry?” she called quietly.

“Lieutenant Hawkeye!” she heard Winry gasp from behind the door. Sighing in relief, Hawkeye entered and scanned the room. Toward the back corner was a small group of terrified children huddled together, hidden behind Winry and Tamaki. Winry had a heavy wrench in hand, while Tamaki had his gun in a deathgrip. Hawkeye was thankful to see his finger off the trigger and the barrel pointed at the ground. Even in a tense situation like that, he was displaying proper gun safety.

“Wh-what happened to Alphonse?” Tamaki asked. Despite the fear in his voice, he relaxed just a little.

“Fuhrer-King Bradley happened,” Hawkeye said, sitting Alphonse down for a moment. “We can’t cross the desert like this. Winry, Tamaki, Alphonse, I need you to get these children to safety. I’ll stay here to find survivors. Meet me at… Cameron, to the south.”

Alphonse sat up, clearly alarmed. “But Hawkeye, you can’t stay here on your own! Bradley-”

“I’ll keep out of sight. Alphonse, you won’t be able to help me like that, and these children need protection right now. Don’t argue, not now,” Hawkeye snapped.

“Just… promise you’ll be careful,” Winry said quietly.

Hawkeye nodded, her expression softening. “I promise. You three stay safe, move fast, keep quiet. I’ll be right behind you.” Winry and Alphonse both nodded grimly. Tamaki, however, didn’t react. As much as Hawkeye wanted to get moving immediately, she didn’t want to abandon him without a single word. She moved closer, gently putting a hand on his shoulder. “Tamaki. This isn’t your fight. Stay alive and focus on getting home. I’ll make sure everything works out alright.”

Tamaki took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m… counting on you to get these children their parents back. I’ll keep them safe until then,” he said solemnly. He put his gun away and moved over to Alphonse, helping him stand up. No-one exchanged any goodbyes before heading off for fear of them being the last goodbyes they ever said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, looks like Bradley's established a bit of a pattern: when he shows up, someone dies. Also rocks fall, but that's unrelated to the dying for once. In any case, who's up for a little pallet cleanser? The link below is an alternate chapter 13 writtenby my younger brother, who got a hold of my computer before I started writing this one. It's called:  
> BARUHI'S REVENGANCE  
> https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/486523  
> (It's a joke chapter, he's only a year younger than me and a great writer.)


	14. Queen of Spades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kyoya plays a game, Pride's a damn cheater, and relationships begin to mend.

Kyoya looked over Kaoru and Honey’s injuries, quietly relieved that he had managed to keep them both from dying. He had been worried about Honey in particular, but thankfully most of his injuries were superficial and no arteries or major organs had been hit. He had woken up halfway through Kyoya’s examination of his injuries, and seemed aware and alert. Kyoya wouldn’t be dwelling on that, normally. He would have written it down and then moved on. But, normally, he wasn’t trying to distract himself from one of the hosts being _literally possessed by some sort of otherworldly_ **_thing_** -!

Kyoya took a deep breath. Then another. Then he started writing.

 

> \- Two injured, Hitachiin Kaoru and Haninozuka Mitsukuni. Currently recovering.  
>  \- One possessed, Fujioka Haruhi. Status unknown.  
>  \- According to Elric, it is likely that Fujioka is still alive  
>  \- Must determine way to tell between Fujioka and demon(?)

And to do that, he would need to talk to them. No matter how he wrote it, everything came back to that. “I suppose that’s just the way it is,” he sighed, snapping his notebook shut. He couldn’t ask Kaoru or Honey, as they were both still recovering. He wouldn’t ask Hikaru, who was avoiding Haruhi. Mustang and Edward had talked to Haruhi a few times in the days following the demon’s discovery, though they had mostly been talking to the demon itself about the logistics of getting them home. With that firmly in his mind, Kyoya resolved to talk to Haruhi himself.

Before he knew it, he was at the door to Haruhi’s room. Unsurprisingly, Mustang was sitting outside it. He had mentioned that he was keeping an eye on Pride. Kyoya nodded to him in acknowledgement, and received the same in return, before knocking on the door.

“Haruhi? May I come in?” he asked.

“Oh, Kyoya-senpai!” Haruhi said, opening the door with a smile. “Sure. I wasn’t really doing anything. Come on in.”

Kyoya paused, suddenly uncertain. Was Haruhi acting normal because it _was_ Haruhi, or was she acting that way because it _wasn’t_ and wanted him to _think_ it was? Either way, he couldn’t gather any more information from the hallway. Besides, Mustang was right there, so even if that demon did lash out, he was one shout away from being rescued.

Upon entering, everything seemed close to normal. Though there were a few board games scattered around, each one halfway through a game. “I see you’ve been keeping yourself entertained.”

Haruhi shrugged, frowning a little. “Not really. Board games are no good when your opponent knows exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Ah, I see,” Kyoya said, picking up a deck of cards. He removed three of the queens, leaving only the queen of spades, and began shuffling. “Well then, perhaps I could be your opponent for a while. I assume you know the rules to ‘Old Maid’?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve played, but I remember it well enough.”

“Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re out of practice,” Kyoya laughed, finishing his shuffling and cutting the deck in two. They were both quiet for a moment as they removed the pairs from their hands, cutting them down from a sizable pile to just a few cards each. Kyoya had eight cards, Haruhi had nine, one of which was definitely the Old Maid.

Of course, since Kyoya had dealt, that meant Haruhi went first. And, since it was a two-player round, any card she took would be a match for something in her hand. She picked a card from the middle of Kyoya’s hand, making a match with the three of clubs and the three of spades.

“So, since these games obviously didn’t work, how _have_ you been entertaining yourself?” Kyoya asked, looking over Haruhi’s hand. She wasn’t holding any of the cards oddly, as many others might to try to trick him into picking or not picking it. He picked the one second from the edge, earning a match with the eight of spades and the eight of diamonds.

“I’ve mostly just been talking to Selim,” she answered, gesturing vaguely at her shadow wither her free hand.

Kyoya glanced at it just long enough to confirm that it wasn’t moving oddly, the way that the others had described. “Selim? Is that what you’re calling it? The others said it’s name was Pride.”

“Selim is what he calls himself,” Haruhi said, a defensive note slipping into her tone. She made her selection, matching a five of clubs and a five of diamonds.

Kyoya noted that, based on where she had pulled the five from, it almost seemed like her cards were ordered highest to lowest. Surely it was a bluff, though? “And it told you that itself, did it?”

“ _He_ did, yes,” Haruhi said. She sounded frustrated. Possibly too frustrated. Why would Haruhi care that much for something that was possessing her?

With a grin, Kyoya called the bluff, picking from the ‘higher’ end of Haruhi’s hand. The apparent order of the cards was a trick, obviously, just like the demon that was acting as Haruhi to get everyone’s guard down.

Kyoya turned the card to face him, and found himself staring at the Old Maid. Either he had gotten unlucky enough to get it despite figuring out the bluff, or whoever he was facing hadn’t been bluffing at all.

“Bad luck, Kyoya-senpai,” they said with a slight laugh. “I’ll close my eyes for a bit so I don’t see where you put it in your hand.”

Kyoya thought for a moment before placing the card in the middle of his hand, and moved one of his other cards slightly lower in his hand as if to indicate it was somehow different than the others. “That should do it, you can open your eyes,” he said.

His opponent opened their eyes, taking their time looking over his hand. Kyoya could see their eyes resting on the lower card a moment longer than the others, but they didn’t comment on it.

“Kaoru and Honey have been recovering well,” Kyoya said lightly.

His opponent flinched, but kept their eyes on his cards rather than look up at him. “That good to hear,” they said as they made their selection. They matched a four of diamonds with a four of clubs. “I should probably visit them soon, but I don’t really know if they would want to see me so soon after all that.”

Kyoya shrugged. “Why not? It’s not as if _you_ were responsible for any of that, Haruhi.” That much was true. Whoever he was talking to at that point, what happened wasn’t Haruhi’s fault. “The blame lies squarely on… ‘Selim’s’ shoulders.” Kyoya picked another card from the higher end of his opponent’s hand, matching a king of hearts with a king of clubs.

“I guess. I just wish Kaoru would see it that way,” they sighed.

“Well, it’s important to understand his perspective. It may not be your _fault_ , Haruhi, but the incident did have your face attached to it,” Kyoya said.

His opponent didn’t seem surprised by his sudden turnaround. “Yeah, that’s what makes it hard. I want to make sure they’re alright, but I don’t want to worry anyone.” They reached over and picked a card, matching the ten of clubs with the ten of diamonds.

“In that case, you’ll just have to find a way to prove who it is. We can guess at who’s speaking to us, but no-one’s really going to be at ease until we can tell for sure.” Kyoya picked a card at random. With the Old Maid in his hand, it didn’t really matter what chose. He ended up matching a nine of spades with a nine of hearts. That left him with only the ace of spades and the Old Maid in his hand. Ultimately, the winner would be decided by what his opponent chose next.

“Hey, Kyoya-senpai? You should really put your cards face-down on the table. Selim is going to try to peek over your shoulder and tell me what to pick,” they warned him. Kyoya paused for a moment before deciding to do as they suggested.

“Hm… knowing you, it could honestly be either one,” they said, looking over the cards. Eventually, they just closed their eyes and grabbed one at random. With a small laugh, they turned it toward Kyoya to reveal the Old Maid. “Looks like you win this one, senpai.”

Kyoya relaxed a little. He hadn’t seen any definitive proof quite yet, but somehow he was sure that he was talking to Haruhi. “Thanks to your warning at the end there. I should have known that someone who would brazenly declare themselves as ‘Pride’ would stoop to cheating at something as petty as a card game between friends.”

Haruhi perked up, beaming. “I think that’s the first time you’ve admitted that we’re friends out loud, Kyoya-senpai!”

“I suppose so,” Kyoya said. In any other situation he might have denied it or tried to talk around that little slip of the tongue, but there was no benefit in that. With everything that was going on, both he and Haruhi needed good friends to rely on. “Friends or not, though, if I had a demon willing to cheat on my behalf, I wouldn’t have told you.”

Haruhi shook her head. “No, that’s not right.”

“Oh, how so?”

“Because you like to succeed on your own merits,” Haruhi said confidently.

Kyoya chuckled. “That’s an intriguing notion-”

“In its own way,” Haruhi finished with a sly grin. She got up and quickly gathered up the deck of cards. “I’m going to go visit Kaoru and Honey. I might even play some card games with them, too. Do you want to come, too?”

Kyoya thought back to all the things he should be doing. He had barely started studying what little Alchemy Mustang and Edward had shown him, his schoolwork (along with Tamaki and Mori’s) was starting to pile up, and there was really nothing to be gained from sitting around playing cards with everyone.

Then again, he still needed to find some real evidence to figure out a way of determining between Haruhi and Pride. Relying on ‘intuition’ wasn’t going to cut it.

“I suppose a few games couldn’t hurt.”


	15. Unsafe Passage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which people are still hostile toward Selim, Ed and Mustang finally go home, and Kyoya tries to talk his way out of a terrible situation.

Haruhi was a little anxious as she walked down the halls, following Kyoya to the makeshift infirmary. It didn’t help that Mustang was walking along behind her, watching her closely.

_ Why are you putting up with that? _ Pride huffed. It was pretty obvious why, so Haruhi didn’t bother answering.

“Nervous?” Kyoya asked, glancing back at her over his shoulder. “You’re muttering to yourself. Or, muttering to ‘Selim’.”

“I… guess I’m a little tense,” Haruhi admitted. “Selim didn’t exactly make a good first impression. And I know people can’t really tell between me and him.”

Kyoya turned his attention back to the front. “I wouldn’t say that. After all, they did manage to correctly tell between the two of you before they even knew Pride existed.”

Haruhi thought that over for a moment. In hindsight, they  _ had _ been acting off since Selim had taken over. Maybe they had noticed something earlier than she thought.

“Here we are,” Kyoya said, stopping in front of the door to the infirmary. “Are you ready?”

“It’s not like you to be so concerned, senpai,” Haruhi noted.

Kyoya frowned a little. “Well, if it’s so uncharacteristic I’ll be sure not to do it again.” With that he opened the door and headed inside, leaving Haruhi and Mustang standing in the hall.

“Not sure what there is to gain by antagonizing him,” Mustang said, crossing his arms.

With a little laugh, Haruhi shook her head. “No, if he was actually mad it would be obvious.” she took a deep breath, preparing herself, and followed Kyoya in. Once she did, everyone fell quiet. Kaoru and Honey looked understandably wary, while Kyoya was sitting back and watching to see what would happen. Haruhi wondered if maybe the visit was a bad idea.

Then Honey’s face lit up. He jumped out of bed and practically tackled Haruhi in a hug. “Haru-chan! You’re back!” he cheered.

That seemed to interest Kyoya. “How can you tell for sure?”

“Hmm… I dunno! That bad feeling I had isn’t as strong as before, though,” he said with a shrug. While that didn’t seem to be enough for Kyoya, Kaoru relaxed a little.

“Welcome back,” he said, gingerly getting out of bed. It was clear from how he moved that the gash in his side still hurt, but at least he was able to stand on his own.

Haruhi rushed over to him so he didn’t have to walk much further. “Are you okay?”

“I’ve been better,” Kaoru laughed, sitting back down. “What about you? Is that thing still in there?”

_ What does he mean ‘that thing’? I should cut him in half next time. _

“Yeah, Selim’s still here. But he’s spending most of his time helping Mustang and Edward figure out how to get home,” Haruhi said, ignoring Selim’s comment.

Mustang nodded in agreement. “He should be able to pay the toll for us in a few days. Once we do, he’ll be able to leave Haruhi and come back with us. In exchange, we won’t attack him when he’s vulnerable.”

“Until then, though, I’m keeping him company,” Haruhi said with a shrug. “Speaking of company… do you two want to play some card games with me?”

 

They spent a while playing card games. Kyoya stayed with them, partially to make sure Kaoru and Honey weren’t overexerting themselves, partially to keep an eye on Haruhi to give himself actual evidence for the feeling that it was really her. Of course, he didn’t take part in the card games, instead spending his time on his studies (both of schoolwork and alchemy).

It was relaxed few days. Even when Hikaru came to visit and found Haruhi there, he was quickly reassured by Honey that it was actually her. Of course, even with the reassurances he didn’t leave his brother alone with Haruhi from that moment on.

In the end, his caution was unnecessary. The days passed without incident. And, after almost a week of waiting, it was finally time for the alchemists to return home. Pride had regained enough strength to buy them safe passage through the ‘gate’, whatever that was. Edward and Mustang had been a little unwilling to elaborate on that.

Kyoya, curious about this apparently forbidden alchemical array, followed Haruhi and Mustang to the dining hall where Pride had fought Honey. Despite his recommendations to the contrary, Honey and Kaoru decided to accompany them as well. And, of course, where Kaoru went, Hikaru followed, which meant everyone would be there to see their guests off.

The dining hall had been repaired, to an extent. At least, the holes had been patched. But the floors were ruined beyond repair by the large, somehow ominous alchemic array that Edward had painted on them. Kyoya would have to find a way to clean or replace them without letting the wrong kind of person see. One errant rumour about ‘unsavory activities’ during their excursion could kill not only his reputation, but that of every other host as well.

“Well, looks like we’re finally going home!” Edward said, looking up at the group with a grin.

Mustang nodded in agreement, though he looked notably tense as he went to join Edward in the confines of the array. “Let’s go.”

“Right,” Haruhi said, stepping into the array with them. “I guess this is goodbye, then. It was very nice to meet you, Edward, Mustang.”

After exchanging a few goodbyes with everyone, Edward turned his back to them and knelt down to start the transmutation. It was hard to tell when he was facing the other way, but Edward seemed uncharacteristically… afraid? No, not quite. Apologetic? Guilty? Kyoya couldn’t think why. Then again, the transmutation he was about to perform was apparently forbidden. That could be the reason.

Whatever it was, it didn’t stop Edward from clapping his hands together and activating the array. The now-familiar blue light that streamed from the circle was slowly swallowed by creeping darkness. Hands seeped out of the crack in reality, reaching for Edward and Mustang and beginning to pull them apart. Horrific, but not unexpected.

Then the hands reached for Haruhi as well. She stumbled away from them, confused. “Wait- Selim, what-? Why-?!” Haruhi’s posture changed, making it clear that Pride was the one in control. With a grin, it allowed the hands to reach them, beginning to tear them apart as well. Before Kyoya could think of whether or not he had learned how to stop a transmutation in progress, something rushed passed him.

“Haruhi!” Hikaru cried, rushing into the circle with an arm outstretched as if to try to pull Haruhi out. Instead, the hands reached for him as well. Predictably, Kaoru rushed in right after his brother, grabbing his arm in an attempt to keep him out of danger. His hands just crossed the threshold of the array, pulling him in as well.

“Damn it, you  _ idiots _ ,” Kyoya hissed. There wasn’t enough time to stop the transmutation anymore. If he did, it would probably leave everyone half-deconstructed. But he couldn’t allow them to go to some other world on their own! So the only thing to do was… follow them.  _ I’m just as big a fool, then. _

He took a few steps toward the array, then paused. There would be more creatures like Pride in that world, wouldn’t there? So he couldn’t go alone, either. “Honey, are you coming?” he asked, half-turning to look at him. “We’re going to need you.”

“I- I…” Honey stuttered, tears in his eyes. After a moment (one too long, the portal would be closing soon, Kyoya was sure), he nodded and ran to Kyoya’s side. Together, they stepped in and-!

 

White. Nothing but bright, featureless white as far as Kyoya could see. He took a moment to steady himself as he looked around. Was that where Edward and Mustang had come from?

“Not exactly what I was expecting,” Kyoya said, beginning to look for everyone else. “No… This clearly isn’t it. Some sort of limbo, perhaps?”

“You figured that out quicker than most,” chuckled an unfamiliar voice from behind him.

Kyoya spun around to face… some sort of pale creature about his height and build. It seemed to know what was going on, at least. “So it  _ is _ limbo, then? Meaning I haven’t made it all the way through to that other world. Am I the only one here?”

“Yes and no,” the creature said. It paused expectantly, as if waiting to see what Kyoya made of that answer.

Kyoya thought it over for a moment before sharing his theory (something he wouldn’t normally do, but felt was appropriate). “I take that to mean… that I am not the only one in limbo, but I am the only one in  _ this _ version of it?”

The creature laughed, clapping a little. “Exactly right! Now, why do you think you’ve been sent here instead of that ‘other world’?”

That question was a little bit more difficult. Kyoya had only really studied basic alchemical arrays. Neither Edward nor Mustang had even entertained the thought of teaching him about the human transmutation they had been using, so most of what he knew about it was guesswork. Frustratingly enough, he had to admit that the array was far too complicated for him at that point.

“Stuck?” the creature asked. “Then I will explain. We’re here to discuss the matter of payment. Your toll.”

Kyoya froze, a chill running down his spine. “No, that… can’t be right. Pride paid the toll. That was the entire point of waiting for him to regain his strength,” he said, not even bothering to hide the tremor in his tone.

The creature shook its head. “No. Pride paid for four. Himself, Haruhi, Edward, and Roy. Nothing more, nothing less. The rest of you have debts to be paid. And not with money, little rich boy.”

That couldn’t be right. There had to be some way to have Pride pay, or a way to back out completely. “Send us back to my world then. We haven’t paid, and we haven’t gone to that other world. There’s no transaction here, we can just-”   
Suddenly, the creature was right in front of him, one hand cupping his chin. “Silly child. That silver tongue can’t save you now.” It grinned widely. Something in its mouth was different from the rest of it, with colour and a distinct form. The strange creature had a real, human tongue.

Halfway through a moment of horrible realization, those hands from before grabbed Kyoya from behind, dragging him into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've split the next chapter off from this one instead of putting them together because I wanted to include a trigger warning before the next scene. So, trigger warning:  
> The next chapter involves people losing body parts, and blood.


	16. That Bloody Silver Tongue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things didn't go as planned, Kyoya is in shock, and Mustang takes the lead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING!  
> The following chapter contains loss of limbs and blood.

The first thing that Kyoya became aware of was a burning pain in his mouth. The next was that he was choking. He snapped his eyes open, rolling over on his side and coughing up blood. Too much blood. His vision wavered at the sight of all of it. But… he wasn’t still bleeding? There had been a lot of blood in his mouth, but once he had spat it out there wasn’t any more to replace it. So what had-?

His tongue was gone. His  _ tongue _ was  _ gone _ !

_ If treated quickly, the tongue can be reattached with dissolvable stitches. _ Where had he read that? Didn’t matter. Kyoya forced himself to look up, trying to see if he could find his tongue. His  _ tongue _ that was  _ missing _ -!   
No. No panicking. That wouldn’t help. He kept looking, forcing himself to slow down and search carefully. Even so, he couldn’t find it anywhere. It shouldn’t have been that hard to find. Surely a  _ tongue _ would be noticable no matter where it was!

_ … That creature’s mouth. It… had a tongue. It  _ **_took_ ** _ my  _ **_tongue_ ** _! _ Kyoya realized. Was that his toll? Meaning… he was in that other world.

Giving up on the search for his tongue (it was in  _ limbo _ with that  _ thing _ ), he looked around him properly. He was in some sort of underground cavern. The walls were covered in pipes, and there was some sort of throne in the middle. That… didn’t give him much information, but he took note of it anyway.

Note. Notes. His notebook! He could at least use that to communicate with the others, once he found them. They weren’t in the room with him, but they couldn’t be too far, could they? After all, they had all used the same transmutation to get there.

Kyoya struggled to his feet, giving himself a moment’s pause to work through the sudden dizziness the action caused. When the ringing in his ears finally stopped, he was sure he could hear voices from nearby.

“- wrong, Hikaru?! Come on, it’s me! Why- Why aren’t you saying anything? Why-?”

“-said you would leave me behind-!”

“-It hurts-!”

“-the hell are they here-?”

Shakily, Kyoya made his way toward the sound. A small door, half hidden by the pipes, delayed him for a frustratingly long time. He couldn’t seem to coordinate his movements. Eventually, he pulled the door open, revealing a horrific sight.

The others were all there, in various states of pain and confusion. Kaoru was looking around at everyone, both hands over his bleeding ears, demanding to know why no-one was making any sound. Hikaru didn’t have any obvious injuries, but was staring at his brother with wide, vacant eyes. And Honey… God, it looked like half his face had been torn off.

Those injuries… were the tolls they paid. And Honey’s was Kyoya’s fault. He had told him to follow, thinking the toll had been paid.

_ Mori’s going to kill me when he sees this. _ That was a horrible, self-centered thought, even for him.

Haruhi was off to the side, arguing with Pride. Meanwhile, Edward and Mustang were doing their best to keep everyone from panicking any more than they already were. And, somehow, they were still in Tamaki and Mori’s bodies.

“Kyoya!” Edward said, heading over to him. “What happened back there?!”

Automatically, Kyoya started trying to answer as he normally would. Just trying to move his missing tongue sent a bolt of pain through his jaw.

Edward’s eyes widened as he realized what Kyoya had lost. “Sorry, don’t-”

Kyoya waved him off, taking out his notebook and writing, ‘Pride didn’t leave Haruhi. Hitachiins followed her. Honey and I followed them.’ He would have liked to give a bit more detail, but a summary was the best he could do while stuck with writing.

“Pride!” Edward snarled, turning to Haruhi.

She backed away a few steps, panicked. “Wait- Wait- It’s me right now!”

Edward paused, teeth gritted and fists clenched. “... Damn it… Now what…?”

“Now we get everyone bandaged up, find somewhere safe, contact everyone else, and figure out what happened while we were gone,” Mustang said, carefully picking Honey up with one arm and putting his free hand on Kaoru’s shoulder to guide him. “We’ve got to keep moving.”


	17. Status Report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a few notice something strange, Edward conducts some funerals, and Hawkeye receives a transmission.

To say that something strange was happening would have been an understatement on Mori’s part. Something ‘strange’ had been happening ever since he woke up in a body that was not his own, in a world that he presumed wasn’t his own either. But, on top of everything else, Mori had been suddenly overcome with a strange feeling, as if something was calling out to him.

Though, he didn’t have time to dwell on that when he heard someone  _ literally _ call out to him. Hawkeye, the woman who had been protecting him. Mori breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t used to feeling so vulnerable, so having someone to watch his back was very reassuring.

“Stay here, stay quiet,” he said to the nearest civilian. One advantage to waking up in the body of a colonel was that people tended to listen to him. The civilian scuttled off to tell everyone else to stay put while Mori carefully made his way toward Hawkeye’s voice. He made sure to keep his feet low as he walked so he didn’t trip over any rubble.

“Mori, there you are!” Hawkeye said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “What happened, why isn’t anyone at the meeting point?”

“That would be because of me,” another voice said, approaching quickly. Mori recognised it as Scar’s voice. “Greed and I were going to use that mine to trap Bradley. We had him move the civilians somewhere safer.”

“Right. Did you manage to trap him? And where’s Greed?” Hawkeye asked.

Scar didn’t answer right away. “We… trapped Bradley,” he said. That was really all the answer either of them needed.

Mori felt Hawkeye go tense beside him. All she said, though, was a quick, “Mori, show us where you took everyone else.”

With a nod, Mori set off back the way he came. He could move a little faster with Hawkeye there, since she kept a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it whenever he was about to run into or trip over anything. Even with her help, he concentrated on where he was going. It was easier to focus on that rather than the fact that Greed was dead.  _ Dead _ . It was just… absurd. Mori had talked to him less than an hour ago. And he was dead. Just…  _ gone _ , never to return. Somehow, it didn’t seem real.

“We should be close,” Mori said, wrenching his attention back to the task at hand. He had gotten a little… distracted, so he wasn’t completely sure if he had quite gone far enough, or in exactly the right direction. Thankfully, the hushed chatter of a nearby crowd assured him that he had.

“Good. We’ll do a quick headcount, make sure no-one’s missing, and then we have to start moving,” Hawkeye said. “Without Ling or May, it’s not likely we’ll find much refuge in Xing. We’ll have to figure something else out. For now, getting away from Bradley and meeting up with Alphonse and the others is our priority.”

 

“We’ll make it to Cameron a lot faster if we ignore the roads,” Winry said, leading Alphones, Tamaki, and the children in what was hopefully the most direct route to Cameron. With the smaller group, they were moving a lot faster. It also helped that they were running for their lives, though that wasn’t really a fortunate thing.

It was twenty minutes, alternating between running and walking as fast as they could, before both Alphonse and Tamaki paused at the same time. They both turned to look toward Central, seeming a little dazed.

“Guys? What happened?” Winry asked, risking a brief moment of pause. A few of the kids collapsed where they were, panting, while others stayed tense and ready to start running again in an instant.

Tamaki re-focused, shaking his head as if to clear it. “I’m not sure. I just had-”   
“-A weird feeling,” Alphonse finished for him. “I had one, too.”

It only took Winry a few seconds to realize what that must mean. “Edward’s back!” she gasped. “You’re both connected to him, right? If you both felt weird at the same time, then it has to be him!”

“That… makes sense,” Alphonse agreed. “But the feeling came from Central. I hope he’s not all the way back there…”

Tamaki frowned, crossing his arms and sighing. “I suppose it was too much to ask for that we just switched bodies again, wasn’t it? As much as I would love to rush right back there and find a way to undo this mess, we do have these children to look after.”

“That’s true,” Winry said. She glanced back at the children for a moment before making up her mind. “We’ll just have to stick to the plan we have. Once we meet Hawkeye in Cameron, we’ll figure out what to do next.”

 

Edward crept through the streets of Central City, on the lookout for any sort of threat. He had decided to scout ahead, after assuring Mustang that he wasn’t stupid enough to rush into battle with how uncoordinated he still was. The Colonel had given him an address where there were apparently ‘important supplies’. A bit of pressing had gotten him to reveal that he kept a few spare gloves there, but Edward was sure there was something else, as well. He hadn’t tried to force any more out of him, though. Sure, Mustang could be frustrating, but overall Edward had to grudgingly admit that he  _ was _ trustworthy enough, when it came down to it.

That being said, he sort of wished Mustang was there to watch his back. Despite the bright blue sky and the midday sun beating down on everything, the streets of Central were eerily still, empty besides the bodies littering the streets. Half of them were unrecognizable, too torn up or rotted to even resemble people anymore. Edward tried not to look at them, or get too close to them.

He could avoid the bodies, but he couldn’t avoid the stench of blood. It was unbearable. Edward held his polearm tighter, hating how ineffectual he knew he would be if something really did jump out at him. Once he got his body back, he would-!

Edward froze. He hadn’t meant to look at any of the bodies, but once he had, he immediately found two that he recognized, despite the state they were in. Sergeant Brosh and Sargent Ross’ bodies lay on the ground next to each other, torn to pieces.

“What the hell… could have done this…?” Edward asked, his voice wavering. He could hardly get himself to stop shaking as suddenly, all the death and destruction around him seemed to become real. Something had killed all of those people, and he had no idea what.

_ The Promised Day _ .

Wait. How had he forgotten? Just before he was forced out of his own body, he had been trying to stop Father’s plan. His plan to…? No, he couldn’t quite remember that part. But Edward was sure that it was serious enough that it could have caused that sort of catastrophe. Once he found Father, it didn’t matter if he had regained his own body or not. He was going to put a stop to Father’s plans.

But… at that moment, there was something else he needed to do. Careful to avoid the blood pooled around the bodies, Edward knelt down and softly clapped his hands together.

“I’m sorry… So sorry,” he whispered, touching the ground and pushing it to swallow up the bodies. It wasn’t much of a funeral, but at least they weren’t lying scattered out in the sun anymore.

He stood up and moved to the next corpse, slowly burying them all on the way to the address that Mustang had sent him to find.

 

Mustang hadn’t been completely comfortable with sending Fullmetal off to scout ahead. Sure, the kid had probably seen more horror in his life than half the sargents under Mustang’s command combined, but usually he would be able to fight his way out of whatever situation he got himself into. Sure, sometimes he came back pretty scraped up, but he always  _ came back _ . In that body, though, Mustang wasn’t so sure if that would be the case.

But Fullmetal had made a good point. If he was scouting, he could stay quiet and try to remain hidden. Whoever stayed behind to guard the Host Club wouldn’t really have that luxury. So it was decided, Fullmetal would scout ahead while Mustang remained with the others.

He wasn’t certain why he was being so cautious, really, but he had a bad feeling. Something had happened, he was sure, and it would be better to make sure the streets were clear of threats before bringing a group of vulnerable teens up there. After whatever had happened on the Promised Day-

“Damn it!” Mustang hissed, jumping up from his seat and earning confused looks from most of the hosts. Haruhi was still too busy arguing with Pride to notice. Mustang assured the others that it was ‘nothing’ before going back to his train of thought.

Whatever had sent him to that other world must have scrambled his memories pretty badly for him to forget that. Even back in his own world, he only remembered bits an pieces. Bradley was a Homunculus. The military had been used to commit genocide to fuel a giant transmutation circle, big enough to cover all of Amestris. And it was all for…

For what? Had he known that and forgotten, or did he never know that bit in the first place? Either way, if it needed Amestris as fuel, it must have failed, right? After all, Fullmetal had spoken with his brother not too long ago. Unless that was before the transmutation started… He couldn’t remember the timing of that sort of thing. Or hadn’t known it before. Either way, he didn’t know it then. Tense, Mustang forced himself to sit back down. What was taking Fullmetal so long?

It was a little over an hour before he finally returned, eyes on the ground with an uncharacteristically somber, troubled expression. “Colonel, I-”

Mustang held up a hand to stop him, glancing at the others, guessing what Edward was about to say. “We should talk about that somewhere else,” he said quietly. “Did you find that address?”

“Yeah, the way there is clear.” Fullmetal said.

Something in his tone told Mustang there was a little more meaning to that, but he didn’t have time to try to figure out what was going on in Fullmetal’s head. “Right let’s go,” he said, looking over at the Host Club to be sure they got the message.

He knew the way there, of course, but he didn’t know exactly which route Fullmetal had taken, meaning he didn’t know which one was clear of any threats. So in the end he had to follow Edward’s lead. Blood and signs of alchemy littered the streets. For a moment Mustang thought that Fullmetal had to defend himself after all, but even a cursory glance showed that the blood was too old for that to be true. That was when Mustang realized what must have taken Fullmetal so long.

With the streets clear, it took barely any time at all to get to the meeting place. It was a simple little house, nothing too conspicuous, and very hard to trace back to Mustang or Hawkeye. It was one of many such places around Amestris that he and Hawkeye had set up, in case they were ever separated or in need of supplies. Mustang made his way inside, leaving the host club in the living room and leading Fullmetal to the bedroom.

“Alright, now we can talk. How much do you remember about the ‘Promised Day’?” he asked. As he did, he looked under the bed, pressing down on the floorboards and listening for any unusual noises.

Edward sighed, leaning against the door and closing his eyes. “I think I remember most of it now. The homunculi, including Fuhrer King Bradley and his son, Selim Bradley, were working under a man called Father in order to turn Amestris into a nationwide transmutation circle. Bloody uprisings were used to power the transmutation.”

“Including the Ishvallan Civil War,” Mustang growled, moving out from under the bed and searching the rest of the floorboards. He knew the supplies would be in that room, but where? Hawkeye had been the one to set up that safehouse, not him. It was easier to focus on that, and his mission to find the supplies, than to focus on how he had been a pawn for the homunculi from the start.

“Yeah. Ishval, South City, Fotset, Wellsley, Pendelton, Riviere, Briggs, Fisk, Liore, and Cameron. And that array was going to use all the souls in Amestris to...” Edward trailed off with a frustrated noise. “That much I don’t remember.”

Mustang sighed in frustration, moving from inspecting the floor to inspecting the roof. “Neither do I. We’ll just have to hope they didn’t activate it while we were gone…”

“They couldn’t have,” Edward said. Mustang had to hold in a relieved sound as Edward continued. “They needed ‘sacrifices’ who had opened the Gate of Truth to activate it. That’s why the homunculi weren’t allowed to kill me or Al.”

“And now that you’re back?”

Fullmetal paled a little at that. “Well… I’ll just have to not get caught, that’s all.”

_ He couldn’t have less of a plan if he tried, _ Mustang thought, shaking his head. He was about to snap at Fullmetal before something shifted under his hands. A panel of the roof slid aside, revealing a small box and a stash of firearms, as well as a note and a rather large radio. “There’s some good news, at least. It looks like everything’s still here.” He got everything down and spread it out on the bed. First things first, he opened the box to reveal three pairs of his usual gloves. That was a little less than he wanted, but it would have to do. He pulled on one pair and moved on to inspecting the firearms. There were two pistols and a sniper rifle, none of which were in the prime condition that Hawkeye liked to keep her weapons, but they were better maintained than Mustang was inspecting.

“Diligent as always, Lieutenant,” he said with a small smile. Finally, he moved on to the note, decoding the message in a matter of seconds. What looked at first glance to nonsense was actually a code.

_ Tucker sighted. Commence battle after training. No further orders. _

‘Tucker sighted’ would have been the year Sho Tucker became a State Alchemist, 1912 ‘Commence battle’ could have meant any number of things, but considering it was Hawkeye leaving the message, it was likely  _ that _ battle. The Ishvallan Civil War. He hand Hawkeye had been sent to fight there in 1908. ‘After training’ meant the year he had graduated from the Military Academy, 1905. ‘No further’ indicated a 0.

1912, 1908, 1905, 0. Shortening the dates left him with 12, 8, 5, 0. But the 8 and the 5 were in the wrong order. The message indicated that the ‘training’ number came  _ before _ the ‘battle’ number. So the frequency was 12580. And the time of contact was made up of the unused numbers, 1900 hours, which was 7pm.

“Lieutenant Hawkeye says to contact her at 7pm over the radio, at 12580khz,” Mustang said after a short pause. “We should wait here until then. It seems safe enough, so there’s no point to moving around unnecessarily.”

Fullmetal nodded in agreement. “Yeah, true. And Al should be with her, too. It’ll be good to talk to him again. I… hope that Winry is with them.”

Right, Fullmetal’s girlfriend. He had to be worried about her. “Well, we won’t know until we talk to them,” Mustang sighed. “For now, let’s rest up, eat something, and get ready to move out.”

 

In the other room, Haruhi leaned against the door, her eyes closed as she allowed Pride to listen in on Mustang and Edward. “There, happy now?” she sighed. “They’re going to call their friend, just like I guessed.”

_ Yes. And they’re remembering the Promised Day. I wonder if I should tell them-? _

“You’re not saying another word to anyone, except me,” Haruhi huffed, crossing her arms. “After what you did, no-one going to trust you one bit.”

_ Not even you? _

“No, not even me. You hurt my friends!”

_ They hurt themselves chasing you, _ Pride grumbled.

“Which they wouldn’t have done if you hadn’t  _ kidnapped me _ and  _ dragged me into another universe _ !” Haruhi snapped, pushing off the door so that she could start pacing. “You can’t weasel out of this one,  _ Pride _ . It’s your fault they’re hurt!”

Pride was quiet for a moment at that. He seemed almost hurt by it, actually.  _ There are plenty of other humans in your world. They could have spared just the one… _

Haruhi sighed, shaking her head. “You don’t get it at all, do you? People don’t just swap out friends like that. They’re important. Once you make a real friend, you can’t just replace them with another one. Haven’t you ever had someone like that?”

_ No. _

That was… pretty sad, actually. “So why didn’t you leave me behind and replace me, then? You had Edward and Mustang’s word that they wouldn’t hurt you. Why risk making everyone angry at you just to keep me around?”

Pride didn’t have an answer to that.

“Just think about it for a while, okay?” Haruhi said. While he did that, Haruhi turned her attention back to her friends. None of them were in a good state. Haruhi approached Kyoya first, hoping he was writing some sort of plan or something. That seemed like him. As she sat down next to him. Kyoya looked up at her with a scowl, but his expression softened after a moment. Quickly, he wrote something in his notebook and turned it to face Haruhi.

‘It’s you, isn’t it, Haruhi?’ he asked.

Haruhi nodded, smiling a little. “I’m not letting Pride trick anyone again. I’ve put him in time-out for now.”

_ I’m not a child. _

_ Then stop acting like one. _

“So, it looks like Ed and Mustang are going to meet up with some friends of theirs. Mori  and Tamaki should be with them. So… we should follow them for now, right?”

Kyoya thought for a moment before nodding. ‘After that, we’ll see.’

“They did get us this far. I mean, everyone coming here wasn’t part of the plan, but that was Pride’s fault, not theirs,” Haruhi said. The idea of splitting off from the only two people who seemed to know their way around didn’t really appeal to her. There was always Pride, but she wasn’t about to trust him without a  _ really _ good reason.

“How are you handling… all of this, anyway?” Haruhi asked gently.

Kyoya made a small, uncertain noise, the kind of sound Haruhi never expected to hear from him. It took him a long time and a few tries to scrawl just two words. ‘Not well.’ He showed Haruhi those words for just a moment before putting his book aside and putting both hands over his mouth. He may as well have stabbed Haruhi through the heart. It was her fault that everyone had been hurt, her fault that Kyoya looked so uncharacteristically frail.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, reaching out to… she wasn’t sure. Take his hand, maybe? Put her hand on his shoulder?

Whatever she was about to do, Kyoya waved her off. He sat up straight and picked up his book again. ‘I’ll adapt, I always do. Don’t worry about me. Worry about them.’ He gestured to the others, frowning a little.

Haruhi paused for a moment, wondering if she should argue. Kyoya had snapped back to ‘normal’ was too fast, it was clearly an act. A good one, but an act all the same. Then again, that act was a way of putting distance between them. He needed space. Haruhi would give it to him, but she would be sure to keep an eye on him, just in case. “Alright. I’ll go talk to them.”

She got up and headed to the others, surprised to find Kyoya following after her. She didn’t comment, though, instead sitting opposite Hikaru, Kaoru, and Honey. “H-hey,” she said, suddenly feeling a little awkward. Would they be mad at her for dragging them into everything? Would they even know it was her, not Pride?

Honey immediately jumped into her lap and hugged her, calming her fears a little. “Haru-chan! Are you okay? You’ve been talking to that demon this whole time. Is it hurting you?”

“I’m fine, Honey-senpai. I’m not letting Pride get away with anyone else,” Haruhi said, hugging him a little closer and looking over his injuries. They had managed to bandage his face up while they were waiting for Edward to scout out the area earlier.

Honey nodded before looking back at the twins. “Hikaru and Kaoru aren’t okay. Hikaru… doesn’t remember Kaoru at all.”

“I don't remember much of anything…” Hikaru admitted.

“That… makes sense,” Haruhi said. “You and Kaoru have always been practically inseparable. If whatever happened made you forget him… there isn't much left to remember.”

It was then that Haruhi noticed Kyoya periodically showing Kaoru his notebook, summarizing the conversation for him. It would make sense that neither of them knew how to sign. Though, Haruhi was relatively sure that both twins knew a little about reading lips for the purposes of mischief. Either way, she was glad that Kaoru was at least getting part of the conversation. She took his hand and squeezed it to get his attention. She couldn’t really find the words to try to comfort him (and even if she had, they would likely have lost any comforting effect they had through Kyoya’s summarizing). Instead, she just held his hand and tried to communicate what she was feeling through her expression. Thankfully, it seemed to work to calm him down, a little. At least he had stopped shaking so much.

“We’re going to get home somehow,” she assured everyone. “We’ll find someone to help us, you’ll see. And… if we can’t, then we’ll find our own way back. I won’t let everything end here.”

 

Hawkeye had been leading her group for a good few hours, and thankfully there had been no sign of Bradley pursuing them yet. Although, they still hadn’t caught up to Alphonse’s group yet. Those kids were moving remarkably fast. With that in mind, Hawkeye actually considered continuing on through the 7pm contact time. Then again, the civilians would need a break soon, anyway, so stopping a few minutes early was a better idea.

Hawkeye called for a rest, though she made sure to tell everyone to be cautious. Once she had a few lookouts set up, she made her way over to the rest of her squad, glad for a short moment of rest. Not that she would be using it to actually rest, but it was nice to pretend. She sat down between Second Lieutenant Breda and Falman, watching Fuery set up his radio equipment for a few moments before asking, “How’s morale?” She wasn’t looking forward to the answer.

“Bad, obviously. We lost a lot of the last soldiers willing to do their damn jobs in that last attack,” Breda answered.

“And turning back right when we reached our original goal really isn’t helping things,” Falman added.

Hawkeye had to agree, it was frustrating, but… “With both of our Xingiese representatives dead, we didn’t have much choice. Besides, crossing the desert with Bradley right on our heels is basically suicide. I had hoped we would have been further ahead of him when we got there. Anything over the radio?”

Furey shook his head. “No, not yet. Nothing over official channels, and the private one is-”   
He was interrupted by the radio crackling to life. “IGO-4255, IGO-4613, this is IGO-4611, do you copy? Over.”

Hawkeye jumped up, grabbing the mouthpiece of the radio before Furey could even start to move toward it. That was Mustang’s voice, and his callsign! “IGO-4611, this is IGO-4255, I read you loud and clear,” she said, her relief clear in her voice. “What’s your twenty? Over.”

“Still at Charlie, situation complicated, no immediate danger,” Mustang answered. “Requesting rendezvous ASAP, over.”

Hawkeye thought for a moment before saying, “Rendezvous at Echo Charlie, over.”

“Copy, over and o-”

Before Mustang could actually sign out, he was interrupted by Edward shouting in the background. “Hey! You started up the radio without me?!” he called. After the sound of a small scuffle, Edward’s voice came over the radio a little clearer. “What’s happened, is everyone safe? Where’s Al, can I talk to him?”

“You’re as lively as ever,” Hawkeye chuckled, relaxing a little. The sudden switch from military jargon to casual speech was a little jarring, but she quickly got used to it. After all, she doubted that Bradley had a full radio on him, and the Immortal Legion wouldn’t exactly be listening in even if they were near a radio. “Alphonse went on ahead, we’re meeting back up with him soon, over.”

“He’s not with you anymore? Over.” Edward asked, clearly devastated.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be alright. You’ll see him when we meet back up with you,” she assured him. “So I assume you and Mustang aren’t back to your old bodies? Over.”

“No,” Edward huffed. “I’m still stuck in the body of this idiotic aristocrat, over.”

Hawkeye had to laugh at that. Edward hadn’t even met Tamaki, and he was already annoyed at him. “Well, we’ll work on that when we meet up. Watch out for the Immortal Legion on your way, they’ve been slowly sweeping out from Central and into the countryside. Anything else to report? Over.”

There was a short pause after that. Mustang was the next one to talk. “Getting back was… complicated. We’ve got some civilians here from the same world as Tamaki, over.”

Of course. Nothing with Edward or Mustang could ever be simple, why would Hawkeye ever think that both of them together would make it any different? “We’ll have to figure that out when we meet up, over.”

“Roger, nothing else to report, over.”

“Copy, over and out.” Hawkeye paused for a moment after that, reveling in the relief that washed over her at the knowledge that Mustang and Edward were okay and back home, even if the situation was more complicated than she would like. Still, she couldn’t give herself too long. Getting up and brushing herself off, she said, “We should get moving again, now that we know where we’re going. To Cameron, to meet with Alphonse and the others, and then to East City to rendezvous with Mustang and Edward.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dang, what started out as a sort-of-filler/update-on-everyone's-location chapter ended up one of the longest ones yet. Also, looks like we're hurtling toward the end. Or, the end of this part. Because I have not one, but TWO sequel fics planned. I can't say too much more about them for fear of spoiling who does and doesn't survive this one, but I can tell you that both fics will take place at around the same time, making them both sequels to this fic, but parallel to each other.
> 
> Also, yay, I finally fixed the glaring grammatical issue in the fic's summary! One day I might even proofread the fic itself.


	18. Arrival in the East

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Edward tries to reunite a different pair of brothers, Alphonse finds out some harsh truths, and someone finally arrives in East City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hi I'm not dead just ran into some writer's block! Hopefully this chapter makes up for my absence!

Despite their rush, there was somewhere that Mustang had to go before they left Central. It was pretty much on the way out, anyway, so the others couldn’t complain. One quick detour later, and he was standing in front of the ruined remains of Madame Christmas’ brothel.

“What… is this place?” Haruhi asked.

Mustang took a few steps over the threshold, grabbing one of the splintered, charred support beams. “I guess you’d call it my mother’s home.”

The phrasing clearly confused Haruhi, but she still looked sympathetic. “Oh. I’m sorry. This must be-”

“Don’t be,” Mustang laughed. “This is clearly my work. I must have gotten her out before we… left.” He didn’t know where Madame Christmas was, but he knew the only reason he would have burned down her brothel was to hide her escape. “Alright. That’s all I needed to know. Let’s go. We’ve got to meet Hawkeye in East City as soon as possible.”

Wherever she was, he could find her once he figured out what was going on, and how he was going to fix it.

 

The countryside was always quiet. Edward knew that well enough. Still, the silence seemed sharp, almost grating. It wasn’t the peaceful quiet of uninterrupted, rolling hills. It was the oppressive silence of an abandoned battleground. Fields were trampled, cars were abandoned, and intermittent splatters of blood seemed to glare at him from the sides of the road. It was unbearable. And it didn’t help with his guilt, either. He hadn’t been able to stop anyone from getting hurt. He was just as helpless as he was when Nina-

He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself from spiraling. He hadn’t been able to keep the Host Club from getting dragged into things and getting hurt, but he could at least try to help them with what had happened, right? He walked a little faster, catching up to Kaoru and Kyoya and walking by their sides.

“Hey, can I borrow that book?” Edward asked Kyoya. Even if Kaoru knew how to read sign, Edward didn’t know how to do it, so he would need to write anything he wanted to communicate to him.

His request was met with a cold glare. Kyoya flipped to a page of pre-prepared replies, tapping the word ‘no’ a few times aggressively. He then flipped to a new page and wrote, ‘I will pass along what you have to say.’

Edward huffed. Way to make things more complicated than they had to be. “Fine, whatever. I just wanted to ask how he’s handling what happened with Hikaru.”

After a second in which Kyoya passed along the message, Kaoru answered. “I don’t… know what to do,” he said. His voice was too soft, as if he was trying to keep himself from shouting due to his lack of hearing, but overcompensating. “I thought I was ready for him to start to… drift off from me, I guess. If he had done it on his own, maybe I could have handled it. But… not like this.”

“Damn it… Truth really went too far this time,” Edward snarled. “I don’t care if it’s some sort of god, next time I see it I’m gonna knock it’s damn lights out!”

Before Kyoya could pass that message along, Kaoru asked, “Is there a way to undo this? To get everything back?”

The question made Edward flinch. “Yeah, of course. We just need to… find out how.”

Kyoya gave him a critical look before writing, ‘He doesn’t know.’

Edward glared back at Kyoya for a moment before pulling Kaoru to a stop. “Look,” he said, turning Kaoru to face him so he could at least read his lips or something. “I’ve literally never seen you two apart, but now suddenly you won’t even walk next to him? He’s still your brother, right? It’s unforgivable what Truth did, but you should still stick by Hikaru no matter what!”

“... Edward. I’ve been deaf for a few hours. I can’t read lips,” Kaoru said. Still, he seemed a little less miserable than before. Even if Edward’s words didn’t get through, his passion certainly did.

Kyoya tapped Kaoru’s shoulder and held up his book. ‘He said to talk to your brother. Make new memories with him.’

Kaoru nodded, cheering up a bit. “Right. Maybe I was overthinking things,” he said. With that, he headed over to where Hikaru, Honey, and Haruhi were talking and joined in with their conversation.

‘Maybe you’re not so unlike Tamaki after all,’ Kyoya wrote with a wry grin.

“Haha, well, I am a natural leader,” Edward laughed.

Kyoya held up a finger to silence him, then wrote something else. ‘He’s the only other person I know stupid enough to try to verbally give an inspiring speech to a deaf man.’

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?!” Edward snapped.

Kyoya flipped to his page of pre-prepared responses, tapping ‘I suppose’ with a chuckle.

Edward calmed down with a sigh, then asked, “How are you handling it, anyway? The toll?”

That seemed to dampen Kyoya’s mood. ‘I am adapting,’ he wrote. ‘It’s frustrating. And it hurts sometimes, especially when I try to talk without thinking.’

“Too bad they don’t have automail for tongues. Or ears,” Edward said.

‘I have my notebook, at least,’ Kyoya wrote. When he turned it to face him, Edward could see his tight grip wrinkling the pages just a little.

“Yeah, you’ve got that,” Edward said with a strained smile. It didn’t totally replace being able to talk, but it would help him until they figured out something better.

 

“I’m so tired…” one of the younger children cried, tripping over a tree root and refusing to get back up. “Where’s mommy? I don’t wanna keep walking!”

Alphonse quickly scoop the kid up and put her on his shoulders, trying not to break stride. “It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’m sure your mother is right behind us, but we’ve got to keep moving for mow, okay?” For the sake of the kids, they had stopped running after the first hour or so, but they hadn’t been confident enough to actually take a break. Though, it had been a while and there was no sign of Bradley. Maybe they could stop for just a few minutes for the kids to catch their breath?

Almost as soon as he thought that, Alphonse heard something crashing through the foliage behind them. “Ah-! Winry! Hide with the kids!” he called out to her, speeding up so he could hand the sobbing kid over to her. As soon as she took her, Alphonse skidded to a stop, turning to face the sound. A few of the children hesitated, but quickly followed Winry into the bushes. One person did stay behind, though. Terrified as he clearly was, Tamaki stood next to Alphonse, pointing his gun into the trees. Together, they waited for Bradley to explode out of the scenery, already aiming to kill one of them.

“Wait! Don’t shoot!” called a voice that was, thankfully, not Bradley’s. A soldier stumbled out of the bushes with both of his hands up.

Alphonse sighed in relief, and Tamaki lowered his gun. A moment later, Winry stepped out of the bushes, clearly infuriated. “Why didn’t you yell sooner?!” she snapped, marching up to the soldier. “You scared us half to death!”

The soldier jumped, backing away a few steps and seeming to wither under her glare. “I’m so-sorr-ry! I just- I was- I d-didn’t kn-now if it was you!”

Before Winry could keep harassing the poor guy, Alphonse cut in. “Did Hawkeye send you? Is she nearby?”

The soldier nodded, clearly grateful for the change of subject. “Yes, she-she’s just a few m-miles back that way. We don’t know how lo-long Bradley’s going to st-tay in Youswell. She wants you to come back as f-fast as possible.”

It didn’t take long for the soldier to lead the small group back, especially when the children realized that meeting back up with the others meant returning to their parents. Alphonse uneasily watched them disappear into the crowd of civilians, wondering how many would actually find who they were looking for.

“Lieutenant Hawkeye!” Winry gasped, rushing forward.

Alphonse and Tamaki both jumped, quickly following. “Wait- Winry, don’t run off!” Alphonse called, barely managing to keep up with all the people between him and Winry. As a result, Winry and Lieutenant Hawkeye were already talking by the time he and Tamaki caught up with them.

“Lieutenant! We think that the Colonel and Edward have come back!” Alphonse said.

At the same time, Hawkeye said, “Edward and Colonel Mustang are back.”

They both paused for a second, processing what the other had said. “Wait… how do you know that?” Alphonse asked.

“Colonel Mustang got in contact with us over a secure frequency,” Hawkeye explained. “How do  _ you _ know that?”

Alphonse hesitated, trying to put into words. “Well… I guess I just… felt it? And so did Tamaki!”

Hawkeye gave a half-hearted shrug, as if to say ‘that makes sense’. She had been through a lot in the past few weeks, of course she wouldn’t question something like that. “We’re going to meet up with Colonel Mustang at East City. Going to Xing isn’t an option anymore, not now that we’ve lost both of our Xingese spokespeople-”

“Wait, we- we’ve lost May and Ling?” Alphonse asked, that air of dread solidifying in his chest. It was like his whole torso had been filled with cement. “They’re… dead…?”

Hawkeye, who had been about to keep moving on, paused. Something about her hardened, shielded expression broke then, as if the reality of it all hit her at the same time it hit Alphonse. “... Yeah. Bradley… got both of them.” She glanced back the way they had come from, taking a deep breath. She looked so tired… “We can’t stop here. Not yet.”

It took Alphonse a moment to realize that Winry had taken his hand. She was shaking a little, already starting to cry. “They died trying to slow him down, right?” she asked softly. “We’ve gotta keep moving… for their sakes.”

Alphonse was frozen. He hadn’t known May or Ling for all that long, really. So why was he so shocked by their deaths? Thinking about it, they just hadn’t seemed like the sort of people who would die. Ling and Greed were so strong, especially when they worked together, and May  was so full of life…

The realization that they were gone made it impossible for him to move. It was just like back then. Back when his mother died. He had been stuck then, too, only able to move forward because Edward had been there to push him. Even if following him had lead to disaster, it was the only thing he had been able to do at the time. Because alone, he couldn’t move at all.

… But he wasn’t the same kid as before, and Edward wasn’t there to push him. Alphonse looked at the crowd of civilians, saw children reuniting with their parents, heard the cries of the ones that couldn’t… and turned toward East City. “Yeah. We’ve got to keep moving.”

 

As it turned out, East City had been totally abandoned. Even so, it was clear that the Immortal Legion hadn’t reached it yet. After the initial surge, they seemed to have slowed down, ambling rather aimlessly across the countryside. Still, they were slowly making their way towards Amestris’ borders. With that in mind, Hawkeye didn’t relax once they reached East City, as much as she needed to. Seeing Alphonse’s reaction to May and Ling’s deaths, rather than the tired acceptance of the soldiers around her, somehow made them feel more… real. Less like the horrible nightmare of running and violence she had been pushing through over the last few weeks. Even so, she couldn’t afford to stop. She had to find somewhere safe for the few people they had left. Then she could rest.

_ Just a little longer… _ How familiar that was. She had used that same phrase to get through the Ishvalan Civil War. No, during that massacre. That sacrifice to ‘Father’ that she had unwittingly played a part in. Some part of her had known, hadn’t it? That was why she had to push so hard to get through it, as used to death as she was.

No, she was getting mixed up. She had been inexperienced then, unused to death. It wasn’t some sixth sense telling her it was wrong, and she couldn’t have been expected to know about some absurd conspiracy that was going on in the highest levels of government. She wasn’t blameless, but she couldn’t be blamed for that much.

Even worse than getting mixed up, that train of thought was distracting her. With the lack of soldiers willing to go on duty, she had to put herself on first watch. Alphonse had volunteered as well. Despite him not actually being part of the military, Hawkeye trusted him with taking watch. Besides, she was pretty desperate for help after Bradley’s latest attack. Not desperate enough to assign Winry or Tamaki anywhere, though, even with them volunteering as well.

Honestly, Winry trying to defend people wasn’t a surprise, but Hawkeye was a little shocked that Tamaki had put his hand up as well. He hadn’t stopped shaking since Youswell. Then again, thinking back, Hawkeye remembered the protective way he had stood between the children and the door he thought Bradley was coming through. He had been shaking then, too, but still defended them. Maybe he was braver than he seemed.

Regardless, she wasn’t going to put him in danger, the same way she wasn’t going to put Mori in danger. They were both in bodies that didn’t belong to them. It was important to keep the safe until they could swap back. Both of them had been firmly instructed to wait as close to the medical and repair personnel as possible, in the most defended part of their new temporary camp. Last she saw, they were both helping Winry as best they could with fixing  as much automail as possible, so she wasn’t worried about any of them getting restless and wandering off.

With a sigh, she turned her attention back to the horizon. She was on lookout for the Immortal Legion, not trusting herself to stand watch on the side of camp where Bradley was likely to come from. She hadn’t been sleeping well enough for that.

Thankfully, the night passed without incident. It wasn’t until the next morning, right before the changing of the guard, when Hawkeye saw something in the distance. The Immortal Legion was approaching, fast.

Hawkeye turned to the man who had come to relieve her of her duty, snapping, “Go raise the alarm! The Legion is approaching from the north-west!” Without waiting to watch the soldier run off to do as he was told, Hawkeye turned back to the Immortal Legion, glad she hadn’t already put her sniper away.

She took a moment to breathe. They weren’t close enough yet, even for her. Hopefully by the time they were, she would have back up. There were too many for her to take out on her own, especially considering they would likely take more than one shot each. Bullets didn’t work on anything anymore, it seemed.

As soon as they entered her maximum range, Hawkeye started shooting. She had plenty of ammo on her, thank goodness, scavenged from the military outposts in the city, so she didn’t need to wait for them to enter her maximum  _ effective _ range. As she predicted, the bullets hardly seemed to bother them, even when they took a direct shot to the head. As long as there was something left of them to move, they kept moving.

Hawkeye’s heart sank a little when she saw her ‘reinforcements’ arrive. They barely had enough soldiers there for a small firing squad, let alone enough to defend everyone from the Immortal Legion. Even when Alphonse ran onto the battlefield, using alchemy to slam pillars and cones of earth into the Legion, it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to destroy them all in time. They were going to have to run  _ again _ …

Suddenly, Alphonse jumped back, putting as much distance as he could between himself and the Legion. Just as quickly, the Legion all burst into flames. With a sigh of relief, Hawkeye scanned the battlefield, seeing a young man wearing Colonel Mustang’s spark gloves, grinning an unmistakably familiar grin.

He looked up, directly at Hawkeye despite the distance between them, and mouthed, ‘Is this what the higher-ups call  _ immortal _ these days?’


	19. Regroup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Edward meets Tamaki, Mustang meets Mori, and Honey finally sees his Takashi again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: From now on, translations for all French phrases will be added at the bottom of the chapter. I've tried to make it as readable as possible without knowing French anyway, but they will be down there for curiosity's sake. That doesn't could 'mon amie' though, since Tamaki uses it a few times and will likely use it over and over in future chapters, too.

It had taken so long to reach East City that Haruhi had been  _ sure _ her feet were about to fall off. She was about ready to sit down and never stand up again. Unfortunately, she and the others weren’t quite safe enough to do that yet. They had stopped a few miles away from East City, waiting as Mustang scoped out the area through the only pair of binoculars they had.

“Damn it…” he hissed, handing the binoculars over to Edward. “Looks like we’ve finally run out of luck. The Immortal Legion is completely blocking our path.”

“We’re just going to have to try to break through, if we can find a place to,” Edward said. He looked back and forth across the horizon with a frown.

Mustang slipped his backpack off his shoulders, leaving all of his supplies with it. “There’s no way through. Not yet. I’m just going to have to make one.”

“Alright, let’s-” Edward started, but he was quickly interrupted by Mustang holding out a hand.

“Fullmetal… You’re usually  pretty capable ally, as much as I hate to admit it. But right now you’re still not up to this. If you go down there, you’re going to die, and that’s something I won’t allow,” he said. “Just let someone take care of things for once. Besides, someone needs to stay here with the others. I’ll signal you when there’s an opening.”

“But-!”

“I’m counting on you to get everyone through whatever kind of opening I can make, Fullmetal.”

The responsibility seemed to click for Edward. He paused, then nodded. “Fine. You’d better be quick, though.”

Mustang chuckled, holding up his hand to show his gloves. “This won’t take long.”

_ It would be quicker if you let me deal with it. _

Haruhi jumped. Pride had been quiet since Central, so hearing him talk again was a bit of a shock.

_ No, I’m not letting you do anything, _ Haruhi thought. Thankfully, Pride was still too weak from getting everyone through the Gate of Truth to fight her on that decision. He was forced to sit back and watch with Haruhi as Mustang left to face the Immortal Legion. Haruhi didn’t really know what they were, but just based on the name they didn’t sound like good news.

Pride, in the back of her mind, made a small, dismissive noise.  _ Those things are hardly ‘immortal’. Just very hard to kill. _

Haruhi was about to respond, but was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. Kyoya had moved over next to her and written, ‘Don’t let Pride distract you.’

“Right,” Haruhi said, focusing back on Mustang. She had to be on the lookout for their opening, after all. He was close to the Legion by that point. And then suddenly, all the enemies around him burst into flames. Even then they didn’t stop moving until someone on the other side shot them directly through the head. Haruhi had to flinch at that. It was clear that those things weren’t human, but… they sort of looked like it. Haruhi couldn’t help but feel sorry for them, watching them flail as if in pain as they fell to the ground. Then again, even before Mustang lit them up, they had moved like that.

Speaking of Mustang, watching the Legion had almost made her miss the signal that he gave. She caught it just in time to follow the others as they ran down the hill, aiming for the small gap in the wall of flame Mustang had made. Haruhi glanced up at the rooftops of East City, praying whatever sniper was up there, they were good enough not to hit any of them while also keeping any of those weird zombies from reaching them.

Within moments, they were by Mustang’s side. Edward didn’t hesitate, running right through the gap. Everyone else, though, paused for a moment. Kyoya dashed through next, a steely determined look in his eye. The Twins followed, side by side as always despite Hikaru’s memory loss.

Honey, though, paused, covering his face. Despite the bandages protecting the parts of him that had been stripped of skin, the heat was clearly hurting him even from that far away. There was no way he would be able to go through that tiny gap in the wall of flames. On the other side of the fire, Edward paused, waiting for Haruhi and Honey. She didn’t want to keep him or the others from reaching safety, though, so she motioned for him to keep going while she helped Honey. She grabbed Honey’s shoulder, turning him just a little to face her. “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll help you,” she said, holding out her other hand. Smiling despite the tears threatening to fall from his eyes, Honey took Haruhi’s hand. She quickly picked him up before turning to Mustang. “Can you widen that gap?”

Mustang looked between her and the fire, frowning. “... I’ll try,” he said, looking up to one of the rooftops of East City. He made a quick gesture, and in return the sniper focused fire on the Legion soldiers closest to the gap in the flames. Within moments, there was room for Mustang to widen the gap a little. “Alright, go, quick!”

Haruhi didn’t need any more encouragement. Clutching Honey close to her chest, she jumped through the wall of flames.

_ I could have- _

_ No time, Pride! We can talk later, _ Haruhi snapped, still running. She had gotten past the flames and the creepy zombies, but she wasn’t safe yet. She just had to get into the city itself! Pausing just long enough to put Honey down so he could run alongside her, she rushed for the nearest building, seeking cover there. Thankfully it was unlocked, the door half-open in the rush of the previous residents’ exit. Haruhi closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall, sliding down to the floor a moment later. Even after that brief encounter with those things, she had to stop and catch her breath. They were  _ terrifying _ up close. She had no idea how she had thought they looked even vaguely human from far away.

_ So you don’t feel anything for them anymore? _ Pride asked, sounding somehow both smug and disappointed.

Haruhi considered the question for a moment. Eventually, she asked,  _ What are they? _

It was Pride’s turn to pause.  _ Not immortal. That name is something humans gave them. They’re Mannequin Soldiers. _ As he said that, Haruhi got a sort of impression of what how they were made. She shuddered a little at the thought of all the pain that had gone into them. Surely they were suffering greatly…

_ So they were made… a little bit like you? _ she asked, a hint of pity colouring her ‘tone’.

_ No! _ Pride snapped. After a moment he relented, a little.  _ Well, we have similar ingredients. But that’s it. We homunculi are far superior to those things. _

_ Still, they used to be people… _ Haruhi thought, peeking out the window. From there she could see soldiers lined up, shooting down the mannequins, someone in armour using alchemy to destroy them, and Mustang burning any that managed to put themselves out. She had the sudden urge to try to stop everyone from fighting them.

_ It’s not worth it, _ Pride sighed.  _ If you’re worried about them being in pain, don’t be. Killing them is something of a mercy, really. They’re not really aware of anything other than fragments of their own suffering. _ Before Haruhi could ask how he knew that, Pride quietly added,  _ Father told me about them. _

_ Did he create them, too? _

Again, Pride didn’t answer right away, but Haruhi could tell that he did.  _ But he didn’t care about them. Because they’re less than us. They’re even less than humans. _

_ But they’re alive, _ Haruhi said, turning away from the window. She couldn’t keep watching the battle.

_ And that matters why, exactly? _ Pride asked.  _ They’re worth what they’re worth. Being alive doesn’t add anything to that. _

_ Of course it does! _ Why couldn’t Pride understand?!

Haruhi could practically feel Pride flinch away from her.  _ Stop that. That… whatever you’re doing to make your chest hurt. You can’t just hurt yourself to get back at me, you know. _

Haruhi put a hand over her chest, confused, and surprised to find her breath hitching with sobs. When had she started crying? After everything that had happened, it was understandable, but she would have thought she would notice it.

Honey took her hand gently, distracting her from whatever she was about to say to Pride. Slowly, Haruhi leaned forward, resting her head against his chest. “S-Senpai… this is… too much…”

“I know,” Honey said quietly, giving her a loose hug. “I wanna go home… We all do. So we’ve gotta help each other keep going, okay? We’re all gonna get home and have cake together. You can have all the strawberries from on top of mine, promise.”

Haruhi laughed weakly. “Are you really worried about cake and strawberries at a time like this?”

“You know me. I can’t keep my mind off of sweets,” Honey said with an equally weak shrug. They sat like that for a while, completely still, listening to the gunshots and the roaring flames outside.

 

Edward hadn’t wanted to leave Honey and Haruhi back there, but he hadn’t had much choice. The Immortal Legion had taken notice of him and the hosts on his side of the flames. He had to get them to safety, and he couldn’t rely on himself to be able to fight anyone off. He had barely managed the sprint from their hiding place to the opening Mustang had made for them. He couldn’t defend anyone the way he was. So he had to turn and keep running, trusting Honey and Haruhi to follow behind them. They had made it that far, right? So they would be fine.

He was distracted from that thought by a familiar voice directing the hosts to keep running toward the city. All of a sudden he was  _ sure _ everything would be fine.

“Alphonse!” he yelled, relieved.

Al paused, staring at Edward for a moment before suddenly realizing who it was. “Brother? Is that you?” he asked, rushing forward. It was a good thing he did, too, since Edward’s luck seemed to run out at that exact moment. He tripped over seemingly nothing, which would have sent him tumbling to the ground if Alphonse hadn’t managed to catch him. Al quickly turned that into a joyful hug. “You’re finally back!”

“Yeah, even if I am in the wrong body,” Edward grumbled. His entrance had been totally ruined by stupid Tamaki’s damned long legs  _ again _ . Both brothers quickly refocused on the matter at hand, though. The Legion was still a little too close for comfort. “Al, I can’t fight like this.”

Alphonse nodded in understanding. “I’ll help out here. You go find Tamaki and figure out how to get your body back.”

“You got it,” Edward said. He rushed off toward East City, with that familiar goal in mind. He had to laugh a little. Despite everything that had changed, that was the one thing that was always the same. Of course, he made sure that the hosts made it safely into the city and found the camp of Amestrian refugees. There was a ‘common area’ of sorts where people were gathered, huddled together and fearfully gossiping. The arrival of unfamiliar but friendly faces seemed to brighten the mood, though. People were soon asking the hosts all sorts of questions, and Edward was lucky to be able to slip away. He didn’t need anyone distracting him from the each for his body.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to look far before he stumbled on a familiar scene. It was oddly surreal, seeing someone who looked like himself sitting beside Winry as she worked on his arm. Clearly it was just a bit of a tune-up rather than a full repair, since the arm was still attached.

“We’re lucky Edward doesn’t really grow all that much, or I’d have to adjust his automail all the time,” Winry said to the lookalike, who laughed along with her.

With a scowl, Edward marched over there. “Who are you calling shrimpy, you gearhead?!” he snapped.

Winry and the stranger in Edward’s body both jumped up at the same time. “Ed! You made it!” Winry gasped, reaching across the workbench to grab his shoulders. Edward noted smugly how high she needed to reach to get to them.

“Yeah, I made it back, alright,” he huffed, crossing his arms. “Looks like you’ve been having fun while I was gone, chatting it up with your new buddy, gossiping about me being a puny little midget who can’t even reach the stove to cook his own meals.”

Winry just rolled her eyes in response, sitting back down. “So what if I like talking to Tamaki? At least he  _ appreciates _ the work I put into your automail. And he asks interesting questions, too, not just ‘are you done yet’ over and over!”

Tamaki, meanwhile, just looked completely confused. Edward’s growing irritation with the guy wasn’t helped by him putting that lost-puppy look on a face that didn’t belong to him. Edward sat down near him, glaring a little. “I hope you’ve been looking after my body for me.”

“As best I can, mon amie,” Tamaki said, fidgeting uncomfortably despite his smile. Edward almost felt sorry for him. Thinking about what he had seen in Tamaki’s timeline, he was clearly popular and things were clearly peaceful. The culture shock from suddenly waking up in Edward’s body must have been tough. Edward could see one of Hawkeye’s guns nearby, on the counter within his reach. Had he needed to defend himself? Had he needed to shoot anyone? Edward seriously hoped not.

With a sigh, Edward softened his tone toward him. “I’m gonna get us back to normal soon. Just need to figure out how. Until then, we’d better look after each other.”

 

Eventually, the sound from outside started to die down. Even then, Haruhi and Honey didn’t move until someone started to open the door. Instantly, Honey stood between it and Haruhi, defensive.

“There you are!” said the woman who opened the door. Judging by the gun slung over her shoulder, she was the sniper that had helped them get through to East City. Despite her clear exhaustion, her smile seemed genuine. “So you’re two of these ‘hosts’ I’ve heard about,” she said warmly. “My name is Riza Hawkeye. And you must be… Honey and Haruhi, right? Come on, we’ve set up camp a little further into the city.”

With Hawkeye leading them through the abandoned streets, it didn’t take long to make it to the small group of buildings that were being used as camp. There was a strangely mixed air about the place, wavering between anxiety, restlessness, and a fairly recent, fragile sense of hope. Haruhi could hear people chattering about the ‘new arrivals’ helping to destroy a group of Immortal Legion soldiers. Haruhi drew inward a little, trying not to react to that. It wasn’t nearly as glamorous as they were making it out to be, but they seemed so desperate for some kind of victory that she didn’t have the heart to correct them. Instead she just stared at the ground and kept following Hawkeye. She was aware of Honey splitting of from them at some point, going through a crowd to find someone else, but Haruhi knew he would be alright. It wasn’t until she heard a small gasp from somewhere head of her did she look up.

They had stopped in some sort of workshop filled with mechanical limbs in all sorts of disrepair. Haruhi spotted Edward in the background, talking to a blonde mechanic. And approaching Haruhi with a wide-eyed look was…

Wait. She knew that look. The features were unfamiliar, but the expression was unmistakable. “Tamaki?” she guessed, immediately feeling a little lighter.

“Haruhi!” he gasped. He ran the last few steps toward her and pulled her into a desperate sort of hug.

Despite the cool metal arm on her back, Haruhi felt strangely warmed by the action. She sighed in relief, finally relaxing for the first time since arriving in that strange other world. She gladly returned the hug. “Finally. We’ve been looking all over for you, senpai,” she said with a shaky smile.

Tamaki pulled away a little, but didn’t let go of her. “Haruhi, I have to tell you something important, right now, before  _ anything else _ happens,” he said. For once, he sounded completely serious, which was understandable given the situation. Haruhi tensed for more bad news, but was still completely caught off-guard by what Tamaki said next.

“Haruhi, I- I think I love you.”

“You… what?” Haruhi asked, unable to think of a more eloquent response despite all her time at the Host Club. “Wait, what do you mean you  _ think _ you love me?”

Tamaki flinched back at that, clearly expecting a different response. “W-well I- I mean-”

“Are you  _ seriously _ trying to half-ass a confession of love?” Haruhi said, defensive. She had apparently committed to telling Tamaki off as she tried to figure out her own feelings on what had just happened.

“Then how would you do it?” Tamaki asked, pouting and turning away a little to hide his blush.

Haruhi thought that over for a moment. If she were to tell Tamaki she was interested, how would she do it? She took a deep breath, preparing herself. She had a few ideas, mostly gathered from the exaggerated displays of affection that the other Hosts gave to their guests and a few manga she had read as a pre-teen that she  _ really  _ didn’t want anyone knowing about. She might have found them a little bit  _ much _ , but then again so was Tamaki, so she supposed it fit.

“Well… I would try… something like this,” she said, putting a hand on his chest and lightly pushing him against the wall. He could escape if he wanted, obviously, but he seemed frozen. Haruhi leaned in closer, looking right up at him with a small, relaxed smile. “Tamaki… you know, I…” She paused for a moment, letting her gaze flutter to the ground as if she was shy, then looked up again and made sure her resolve showed in her expression. “I love you.”

By then, Tamaki was beet-red, and Haruhi was starting to blush as well. She had just been giving an example, really, but… saying the words out loud, right after Tamaki had… maybe-?

The blonde woman Haruhi had noticed before stood up, slamming her hands on the workbench in front of her. “Well, that’s all really touching, but I have some actual work to get done here. Shouldn’t you be meeting up with your friends right about now?” she asked, clearly flustered for some reason.

Haruhi awkwardly pulled away from Tamaki, but as her hand dropped away from the wall, it somehow found Tamaki’s. He reflexively took it, leading them both to blush brightly. For a second, Haruhi was worried that he might pull away, or maybe  _ she _ would pull away. Instead, they both held a tiny bit tighter as they started to walk out.

“And you go with them!” she heard the woman continue a moment before Edward was shoved out of the makeshift store.

“Jeez, Winry!” Edward snapped, though Winry didn’t stick around long enough to hear his retort. He sighed, shaking his head. “I swear she gets louder every time I see her.”

Tamaki chuckled a little, whispering to Haruhi, “With how much she talked about him while he was away, I had been sure  _ qu'il était avec elle _ .”

“You really think so?” Haruhi asked Tamaki, looking back at Edward. Sure, Tamaki knew a surprising amount about love, but to guess that  _ those two _ were a couple? Haruhi wasn’t sure she bought that.

“Well… she certainly didn’t like seeing another girl flirting with someone who looks like him.”

“So that’s what that was about, huh?” Haruhi grumbled.

Tamaki panicked a little, holding Haruhi’s hand tighter. “N-no, I-”

Before he could finish that thought, they arrived at a ‘town center’ of sorts. The slightly more open area was filled with people, and gathered in one corner was the rest of the Host Club. Tamaki brightened up, rushing through the crowd to meet them.

As soon as he noticed the movement, Kyoya stood up and met Tamaki halfway. The hint of relief Haruhi had seen in his expression when he first noticed herself and Tamaki drained away by the time they reached each other. Tamaki didn’t seem to notice, just hugging him tightly. “Kyoya! Mon amie!” he cried. “Oh, it’s so good to see you again! You- you’re… awfully quiet.” Tamaki finally pulled away, his excitement subsiding a little.

Kyoya sighed, preparing himself before handing his notebook over to Tamaki. He had written a small paragraph, but had clearly had trouble with writing it. Phrases were scribbled out here and there, and the scraps of paper jammed in the spine made it clear that Kyoya had ripped out whole pages while trying to figure out his phrasing.

_ Tamaki,  
There is no easy way to say this. I’m sure that, in your time here, you have seen dreadful things. Just the idea of all of this is  _ ~~_ insa _ ~~ _ absurd. I regret having to give you more bad news on top of whatever you have suffered already. However, I am afraid I have no choice.  
In order to get here, each of us had to pay a toll. I have  _ ~~_ had my tou _ ~~ _ been rendered mute. Kaoru is now deaf. Hikaru does not remember his brother. And Honey  _ ~~_ is dis _ ~~ _ has been  _ ~~_ st _ ~~ __ injured.  
This isn’t your fault. I know you, and I know you are already trying to take responsibility for this. You don’t need to shoulder that burden. It would be, frankly, idiotic of you to try. There is only so much that one person can handle.

Tamaki read the message a few times over. After about a minute of silence, Haruhi started to get concerned. “Tamaki?” She pulled on his sleeve, trying to get him to move or speak or…  _ anything _ .

Tamaki snapped the book closed and once again hugged Kyoya close. “We’re going to get home,” he said firmly. “And then we’re going to fix everything.”

Haruhi sighed, looking away. It was just like Tamaki to fixate on such as simple ‘plan’. Still, in a strange way, his confidence in unlikely things like that was comforting. “Come on, senpai, let’s meet up with everyone else. I’m sure they’re excited to see you again.”

 

Mustang took his time dealing with the Immortal Legion. His flames, as glad as he was to have them back, seemed to take more effort than usual to create. He supposed it was the fact that he wasn’t entirely himself. It was a relief to know that, by arriving at East City, he was one step closer to getting back to his own body.

Before he got to that, though, he had to get a few other things done. First was burning the crap out of some ‘immortal’ soldiers. It didn’t kill them, but it weakened them enough that the gaggle of soldiers, along with Alphonse and Hawkeye, could actually destroy them.

Eventually, the area grew quiet, and Mustang actually found himself wavering a little with exhaustion. He turned, ready to start organizing the ragtag soldiers into proper guard positions, but was surprised to find Hawkeye already doing so.

“... Huh.” He supposed it was for the best. After all, despite his show of power, he wasn’t sure exactly how well he could command anyone when he looked like a child. Before he could really get annoyed about that, he heard the familiar clanking of Alphonse approaching from behind him.

“Colonel Mustang!” he said. At least someone recognized him. “I’m so glad you’re back! Lieutenant Hawkeye’s been really worried about you.”

“Worried about me?” Mustang laughed, crossing his arms. “I was fine, it was practically a civilian world over there. If anything, it was boring.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Just wrapping his head around the idea of other worlds and keeping everyone there from finding out his identity was enough for him.

“She’ll be happy to hear it!” Alphonse said. “But first, she said that if she was busy when you got here, I should show you where Mori is.”

Mustang glanced over his shoulder at Hawkeye. He had wanted to actually talk to her, but he supposed that would have to wait. “Right. Looks like things are under control here. Time to finally meet Takashi Morinozuka.”

Alphonse seemed to smile at that. Mustang really wasn’t sure how he did that, honestly, knowing that there was nothing inside that armour of his. He didn’t comment on it, though, as he followed Alphonse toward East City. It seemed overall abandoned, though Mustang could hear the chatter of people a short while before they turned the corner to see…

Was that really the state of Amestris’ people? They seemed worn down and dirty, faces turned toward the ground as if keeping their eyes off the horizon would keep them from having to face the next bit of horrible news before it got to them. They looked… a lot like the Ishvallan refugees back in the civil war.

It was a few moments before Mustang realized he had stopped moving. Why was that? He hadn’t frozen from those memories for years. He had started recovering, slowly, when he was much younger-

“Ah,  _ damn it _ ,” he hissed. He  _ was _ a lot younger than he usually was, wasn’t he? Of course he would react more emotionally to things like that. It seemed that he needed to adjust to his newfound youth the same way Edward was having to adjust to his newfound height.

Alphonse turned back to Mustang, confused. “Are you okay?” he asked, starting to make his way back to him.

“Just fine,” Mustang huffed, catching up quickly. The sooner he met Mori, the sooner he could work on switching them back, and then he wouldn’t need to adjust at all.

Alphonse lead him through the crowd, pausing every few moments to assure the civilians around them that the Immortal Legion had been taken care of. Eventually, they made their way into a small house at the edge of the crowd. Presumably it had been someone’s home before it was abandoned, and had clearly been set up as a makeshift office. The dining room table was littered with maps that fought for room there with the large radio system. Four men sat at the table, three of whom rose and saluted the second they saw Mustang. Or, more likely, the moment they saw his gloves, since that was the only part of him that was recognizable at that moment. Still, at least Furey, Breda, and Falman were all still alive.

“Colonel Mustang, sir! Good to have you back,” Breda said.

Mustang relaxed a little at the familiarity of it all. “Good to be back. At ease.”

The three sat down, giving Mustang room to examine the fourth person at the table. Not that he needed much time. He had seen himself in the mirror plenty of times. Though, despite that being his body, he didn’t look quite right. His posture was stiff, straight-backed and defensive. His expression was blank and… he didn’t seem to actually be looking  _ at _ Mustang and Alphonse, only  _ near _ them.

But that… couldn’t be right. Mustang took a deep breath, sitting next to Mori. “Well, we finally meet. My name is Colonel Roy Mustang.”

Mori brightened up at that, though his eyes were still dull. “I am Takashi Morinozuka. Please just call me Mori.”

“Mori, right.” There was a short, awkward pause. Mustang wasn’t really sure about a diplomatic way to ask his next question. “What… happened to my eyes?”

That seemed to confuse Mori. “You weren’t blind before this?”

“... No. I wasn’t,” Mustang said quietly as he realized what must have happened. When he was forced to perform human transmutation, there would have been a toll. Of course his body wasn’t how he left it.

Logically, it could have been worse. He could have lost any of his organs. His eyes could have been  _ missing _ rather than just… ineffective. If he was back in his own body that logic might have worked to calm him down. As it was, he had to stop and take a deep breath,  _ forcing _ himself not to  _ freak the hell out _ .

“Alright then. We’ll deal with that later,” he said, frustrated at the audible tension in his voice. “For now, it’s best we meet up with Edward and begin working on getting ourselves back into our own bodies. He’s done far more research in this area than I have, so we’ll need his expertise.”

Mori nodded, standing up. For someone that (Mustang assumed) wasn’t blind before, he seemed to have adapted well. It was a bit of a relief to think that he likely hadn’t made a mess of Mustang’s reputation, though he wouldn’t have blamed him if he did.

It didn’t take too long for Mustang, Mori, and Alphonse to find the rest of the Host Club, sitting to the side of the main gathering area for the refugees. Tamaki and Edward were already there, thankfully, which saved Mustang the trouble of going to find them.

Before they made it all the way there, Honey jumped up, his eyes sparkling from behind his bandages. “Takashi!” he cried, rushing over.

Mori gasped softly, rushing toward the sound as best he could through the crowd. “Mitsukuni!” he called. After a moment, the crowd parted for him, allowing him to move faster.

It also left him completely vulnerable to the sword that flew through the air, stabbing directly through his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the summary didn't lie. Honey did SEE Mori again. Didn't quite reach him, though. Too bad they were both focused on each other, or they would have noticed the sword.
> 
> FRENCH TRANSLATIONS  
> 'qu'il était avec elle' - that he was with her


	20. Pride Before the Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Honey is pissed off, Bradley takes on everyone at once, and Tamaki finally shoots his gun.

“Takashi!”

“Mitsukuni!”

Mori broke into a run before he could think, heading toward the sound of Mitsukuni’s voice. He was there, somewhere! Excitedly, he tried to find his way through the crowd, desperate to finally be back with him!

Mori felt something slam into his back, causing a dull ache. That… wasn’t good. He stumbled forward a few steps before his legs gave out from under him. It was hard to breathe. Was there something in his lungs? That ache got worse every time he breathed in.

He could hear screaming around him. Was someone attacking? Had Bradley caught up to them again? He tried to stand, but he couldn’t quite keep himself steady. When he collapsed again, he found someone there to catch him.

“Takashi!”

“Mitsuku… ni…?”

His voice was so painfully weak. And Mitsukuni sounded so worried… He raised a hand to try to comfort him. He couldn’t feel his fingers, but he managed to grab something. Mitsukuni’s shoulder? There was blood there. Mitsukuni’s? No, wait… it was Mori that had been injured. Then that was his blood? That wasn’t good… There was too much of it. He could feel warm blood spilling from his chest, pooling on the ground around him. So why was he so cold?

“No- No, Takashi, don’t die! Please!”

“Sorry… Mitsukuni…”

 

Bradley stared down for a rooftop, watching the scene below him. People were running and screaming, fleeing from the sudden death in the middle of their supposed safety. He didn’t care about that. Of course, Father had ordered him to destroy the reaminants of Amestris, but he could always do that later. At that moment, he was focused on the small group of people who weren’t running.

He jumped down from the building, walking toward the body of Mustang and the child that was screeching over it. Though, he wasn’t calling him Mustang. That was strange. Even so, Bradley didn’t care much about that. What he care about more was that the child wouldn’t  _ shut up _ . It was worse than the brat at Hughes’ funeral. First he would silence the child, then he would kill the others. He raised a sword and-

A sudden impact sent him flying backward, breaking three of his ribs. For a moment, Bradley was even winded. The child stood over his friend’s body, covered in blood and glaring right at Bradley. Danger radiated off him.

“Well, that was unexpected,” Bradley chuckled. “You really-”

The child rushed forward, giving Bradley just enough time to raise his sword in defense. For a moment he was sure that the boy was somehow a homunculus, despite how impossible that was. Bradley recovered quickly, shifting to an offensive stance, but the child noticed and dodged backward. The tip of Bradley’s sword only just grazed his chest. He began to advance, only to be blocked by a burst of fire.

“Try to kill me, would you?!” snarled a familiar voice from an unfamiliar face.

Well, that was unexpected. He wouldn’t have believed it if his Eye hadn’t confirmed it. That wasn’t Mustang’s body, but that was his soul in there. So the one he killed was someone else, then. “I would call it a compliment, Colonel. You’ve got something of a reputation with homunculi.”

The conversation was interrupted by the blond child advancing again, though Bradley was prepared for him. He half-turned and blocked the kid’s attacks, trying not to take his eye off of Mustang at the same time.

Another burst of flame filled his vision, forcing him back a step. The flames hadn’t even cleared before Alphonse Elric leaped through them, almost catching Bradley by surprise with an attempted kick. He stepped back to dodge, but splitting his attention caused him to miss one of the child’s attacks, earning him a heavy blow to the shoulder. He swung at the child, slashing his arm open but missing the lethal hit. Damn that child, injuring his shoulder had slowed him down by less than a second, but it was enough for the child to dodge easier.

Still, Bradley was starting to adjust to his savagery. He kept his injured arm on Alphonse’s side, blocking his slower attacks, while keeping his uninjured arm trained on the child. If he could just keep up the pace, he would soon find an opening to attack.

“You bastard!”

Bradley groaned inwardly. Of  _ course _ Fullmetal was there. Another child charged toward him with his signature polearm in hand. So another soul swap, then? Perhaps that would work in his favour. Fullmetal was notably slower in that body, making it easy to block his attacks and destroy his weapon. Doing so while keeping the smaller child and Alphonse off his back, as well as side-stepping Mustang’s infrequent bursts of flame, was a little bit more difficult. He would have to deal with them one-by-one.

He stabbed one sword through the child’s foot and halfway into the ground, pinning him in one place and delaying one of the more dangerous opponents. Unfortunately, Alphonse had apparently repaired his limbs since last time they fought. Slow as he was, with all four limbs and his brother, he was a bit of a problem. Then again, with Father’s plan in shambles, Bradley didn’t need to keep either of the Elrics alive anymore.

Bradley hopped over a charge from Edward, destroying his newly-made weapon, and cut through the spiked projectiles that Alphonse sent his way. It was clear that they were trying to back him into the building behind him. The scaffolding around it made it clear that it was still under construction, which would make it easier to collapse on him.  _ Again _ . That was starting to seriously piss him off.

He darted forward, kicking Edward out of the way. In that slower body, he was unable to dodge in time, and flew directly into Mustang. Bradley could hear them arguing as they scrambled to recover. That left him at least eight seconds to find where the alchemical array keeping Alphonse alive was. It couldn’t be in his limbs, that would be too risky. The helmet came off too easily, so it had to be in his torso. Bradley drew both of his remaining swords and sliced open the front of his chestplate. There, on the inside of the back of his neck! As Bradley lunged for the array, Alphonse kicked up his broken chestplate to use as a shield. He was just in time to block a fatal blow.

“Well now, that’s some quick thinking there!” Bradley laughed, pushing his advantage. Alphonse was managing to block his attacks, sure, but he was quickly losing ground. He would soon find himself cornered.

Unfortunately, by that point, his brother had recovered and created another halberd. Edward charged forward again, earning a scowl from Bradley. Didn’t the boy ever learn? That wasn’t going to work. Bradley kept up the attack on Alphonse with one sword and used the other to swing almost lazily at Fullmetal. Though, unexpectedly, the boy dodged back instead of ducking like he usually did, dropping his weapon and running his hand along the wall instead. It flew out toward Bradley, grabbing his sword in a giant stone hand and seemingly devouring it, leaving him with only one.

That would be a problem, actually. Bradley was a little too far from any of the construction equipment to use it as a makeshift weapon. He would have to deal with just having the one sword. A fact which because a little bit more difficult when he heard the first gunshot.

He turned, slicing the bullet out of mid-air before even checking to see who fired it. As it turned out, despite his tears and trembling, whoever was occupying Edward Elric’s body had finally plucked up the courage to take a shot at him. “Well, that’s bold of you,” Bradley said, taking a step toward him. As expected, both of the actual Elric brothers reacted at once, which Bradley quickly put a stop to by holding a sword to Edward’s neck. Everyone froze at that, besides the blonde child who was still struggling to dislodge one of Bradley’s swords from his foot. The battlefield had suddenly gone very quiet.

Privately, Bradley was grateful for that. Weeks of injuries were starting to take his toll on him, and fighting that many skilled opponents at once didn’t put him in the best position. Having the opportunity to catch his breath while also testing one of the current wildcards.

“That’s one of Lieutenant Hawkeye’s, correct? I recognize the model. There are seven shots in total. Six remaining. Do you think you have the nerve to hit me in that many?” The first shot would have missed, even if he hadn’t reacted to it. He had to wonder if that was just a bad shot or if he was unable to shoot a living being. Judging by his expression, Bradley was leaning toward the second option.

Still, despite his shaking hands, he once again took aim. The boy opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t seem to find the words. After a moment, he shot again, the bullet passing harmlessly by Bradley’s ear. Other than some light ringing from the noise, there was no damage done.

“You’ll have to try harder than that, boy. I’m going to kill these people, you understand? They’re going to die if you don’t steady your aim,” Bradley said, shifting his blade a little to accentuate the point. The tension in the air shifted slightly, making Bradley glance behind him for a moment. “A single spark from you, Colonel, and I’ll have his head faster than you can snap your fingers. You’ve already proven your capabilities, now I’m interested in that young man over there.”

He shifted his attention back to the boy. “Well? Five more shots.”

The boy took a deep breath, trying his best to aim. Bradley knew he would miss before he even pulled the trigger. How disappointing. He sighed, ignoring the gunshot as he prepared to kill Edward. Only to find his hand completely shattered by a bullet tearing through the fragile bones and tendons there.

The boy looked shocked, taking a step back, and Bradley had to do the same. The bullet had come from the opposite direction, so it clearly hadn’t been the boy who had hit him. There had to be a sniper, one skilled enough to mask the sound of their shot by precisely timing it to coincide with the sound of the boy’s. He knew only one sniper that good. Lieutenant Hawkeye was watching from somewhere.

In his hurry to remove himself from her line of sight, Bradley hadn’t had time to grab his sword from where he had dropped it. Not only that, but the blonde child had managed to free his foot, and was clearly preparing for another charge. Things were not looking too favourable. It was time to improvise.

He had backed himself up against the wall of a half-constructed building. The structure, which had already taken a few hits through the battle, was unstable. With a bitter laugh, Bradley slammed his shoulder against a weak point in the wall, destroying it and bringing the building down on top of his opponents. He could hear them desperately calling out to each other of the sound of falling stone.

And then the sound stopped. Bradley crouched behind a piece of wall, trying to keep out of Lieutenant Hawkeye’s line of sight. There were still people alive underneath the rubble, he could see chunks of it moving slightly as they struggled to escape.

Though perhaps he could use the time it would take for them to dig themselves out to find Hawkeye and eliminate her? That would at least give him a bit less of a disadvantage when the others recovered.

He glanced over the wall, trying to find where Hawkeye was hiding. He couldn’t see any reflections of the sun off her weapons, and honestly he hadn’t expected to. She wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake. But that wouldn’t hide her from him. His Ultimate Eye easily spotter her, crouched on a rooftop a street away. He darted between pieces of cover, picking up an iron rod as a makeshift weapon.

Before he could make it halfway down the street, however, the blonde child exploded out of the rubble, charging toward him. Despite his injuries, his rage pushed him forward.

“While I would normally admire you gumption, I’m a little busy to be dealing with you right now,” Bradley sighed, blocking his attack and smacking him away with the pipe. The crack of ribs breaking filled the air, giving Bradley a vague sense of satisfaction. It made up for the damage the child did earlier. Still, the child got up again and stumbled forward. Bradley considered him for a moment. He was too injured to be any kind of threat anymore. Still, that determination, the anger that almost matched Bradley’s own sense of wrath… was infuriating. He supposed he had enough time to kill him before moving on to the other threats.

 

As Pride watched Bradley’s sword peirce the back of Mori’s chest, he somehow felt as if he was the one being stabbed. Or maybe it was Haruhi feeling that. After all, Pride had never felt any sort of grief over death before. So it had to be Haruhi, right?

_ Stop it… _

The feeling only seemed to get worse as Honey charged at Bradley. Pride was sure Honey was going to die. But why did he care? He didn’t, right? So what if the kid died? Pride could feel Haruhi’s disapproval at that train of thought, even if she wasn’t speaking to him.

_ Haruhi, if this is revenge for what I did to your friends… _

Watching the others fight, especially Edward in Tamaki’s body, made it hard to breathe. Or rather, made it hard for Haruhi to breathe, but that was something Pride could feel quite clearly.

_ Stop it right now, damn it! Just stop being stubborn and let me help them! _

And then Tamaki took a shot, and the whole world seemed to freeze. Bradley stood there, goading Tamaki into trying to hit him, and both Pride and Haruhi knew he couldn’t. He would never be able to shoot a living target. And they were right. His next shot sailed harmlessly over Bradley’s shoulder.

_ Haruhi, if you don’t let me act right now, we’re all going to die. Is that what you want? _

It clearly wasn’t. It hurt so much to think about, so much that Pride could feel it clear as day. But Haruhi still didn’t trust him, and part of him was starting to understand why. He had hurt the people she cared so much about. He had betrayed what little trust he had managed to earn from her before. Of course she wouldn’t trust him again, not with so much at stake. Realizing he had lost what could arguably be his first actual friend… hurt. And he couldn’t blame that pain on Haruhi’s emotions that time.

Another shot rang out, and suddenly the world was thrown back into chaos. Bradley’s hand seemed to explode, forcing him to drop his last sword. Honey finally managed to free himself, and everyone seemed ready to begin fighting again, but before they could Bradley retreated. A moment later, the nearest building was falling down right on top of everyone.

“Look out!” Tamaki shouted, grabbing Haruhi and hugging her close as if that would do anything. At the same time, Kyoya jumped forward, flipping through his notepad to an alchemical array. As he slammed it on the ground, a dome sprung up and protected the Hosts from the falling rubble.

Everyone breathed a small sigh of relief. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, looking around. Everyone nodded and mumbled a positive response, but… “Wait, where’s Honey?”

“He was… over that way,” Haruhi answered, gesturing to where the battle had been. There was some sound coming from that area, so clearly the building’s collapse hadn’t killed everyone. “We need to go help them.”

Kyoya shook his head. ‘The only thing stopping us from being crushed is this dome. If I remove it then we’ll be buried.’

“But if that crazy guy is still alive then everyone else is in danger!” Haruhi argued.

_ … I can help. My shadows can reach them through the smallest cracks, as long as there’s a little light. Please, Haruhi. Bradley is certainly still alive, and he will dig out the others just to kill them one by one. _

Haruhi paused, thinking it over. She didn’t know if she could trust Pride, but she desperately wanted to save her friends. Eventually, she came to a decision. “... Okay.” She let go of control, letting Pride finally act.

Pride sent a wave of shadows through the rubble, off to find everyone else. Alphonse had managed to protect Edward, though he had earned himself a huge dent in the back of his armour for it. That was fine, though. Pride sent a few more shadows to dig them out. Mustang was in worse condition, with a chunk of plaster having crushed one of his arms. Pride shifted that rubble to give him more maneuverability, but didn’t dig him out yet. He would undoubtedly try to keep fighting if he was freed, which would only kill him and upset Haruhi.

That just left Honey. Where was he? A quick search of the rubble in the area Pride last saw him revealed nothing, until he found a tunnel out. Which meant that Honey was probably still fighting. The thought sent a shot of fear through Haruhi. Pride rushed to find him, making his way to the surface.

“...a little busy to be dealing with you right now.”

The sound of Bradley’s voice made Pride push his shadows to move faster. They arrived just in time for him to see Bradley smack Honey away from him with a steel pipe. If he knew what was good for him, he would stay down. But of course he didn’t. Honey pushed himself back to his feet and stumble back toward Bradley. Pride watched Bradley raise the pipe again, and knew that Honey was going to die if he got any closer. There was only one thing to do.

Pride held Honey back and sliced through Bradley’s chest with his shadows, cutting right through a major artery. Bradley collapsed against the wall, looking down at the wound with genuine shock.

“... Selim?” he asked weakly.

Pride considered the scene for a second. Bradley had acted as his father for so long. Shouldn’t he feel something? He had only known the Host Club for a few hours, and they had been rather mistrusting and antagonistic toward him. So why did he feel for them when they died, but he felt nothing for Bradley? Was it because those feelings really  _ were _ just Haruhi’s?

Why did he care, anyway? Wouldn’t it be better if those feelings were Haruhi’s? He didn’t want that sort of pain, after all. To know that he didn’t have anything that he cared about half as much as Haruhi cared about her friends… he wasn’t upset by that idea at all. Right? Of course not.

He watched Bradley bleed out, waiting for some sort of feeling to hit. But it didn’t. He waited until the moment that the light left Bradley’s eyes, but there was still nothing. He just felt… hollow.


	21. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Selim earns a little trust back, a body is (respectfully) burned, and Mustang has too many feelings about that.

Tamaki watched, shocked, as the shadows around Haruhi bent and swayed. He held her a little tighter as the shadows somehow started clearing away the rubble around them. “Haruhi? What… is this?” he asked, too overwhelmed to raise his voice louder than a whisper.

“Haruhi isn’t here right now. Be quiet and let me focus, or I’m going to accidentally crush someone.”

Confused, Tamaki let go and backed away a little. If that wasn’t Haruhi, then who was it? Had it been Haruhi before, when he had confessed to her? Or was it that mysterious shadow-person? It took all of his willpower, and the knowledge that everyone else was at risk, to keep himself from asking all that right away.

Once the rubble was cleared, Tamaki went back to Haruhi (or whoever it was) and gently cupped her cheek to turn her to face him. He stared into her eyes, finding something different there than he usually did. “Who are you really?”

“My name is Selim,” they huffed, pulling away from Tamaki’s hold. “And don’t worry. I’ll give your girlfriend back in a second. I’m just going to fix everything for you idiots first.” The shadows continued to writhe around for a few moments, steadying the area so that nothing else would collapse, before retreating back to how they should be. “There, that should be alright…”

While Selim was focused on that, Kaoru pulled Tamaki aside to where Hikaru and Kyoya were. “I wouldn’t trust him, boss,” he whispered.

Hikaru, despite seeming a little confused, nodded. “I think… I can’t remember it completely, but I don’t think it worked out well last time.”

Kyoya quickly wrote, ‘He is why we’re like this.’

“Is he… the toll Haruhi had to pay to get here?” Tamaki asked. Come to think of it, he should have questioned that earlier. Why had everyone else been torn apart, but Haruhi had seemed fine.

‘No, that parasite has been with her for a while now,’ Kyoya wrote. ‘Honey could tell you exactly how long, I think, but he is…’

The other three looked over at Honey, but Tamaki couldn’t bring himself to. He knew that Honey was kneeling by Mori’s body. Or, the body Mori had been in. Tamaki had come to think of it as Mori’s, so he couldn’t bare the thought of looking at it. “... Maybe… we should focus on getting home before anything else happens,” he said quietly.

Kyoya nodded in agreement, though he looked grim. That was a bad sign…

 

Haruhi knew that the others were talking to Tamaki behind her back, probably about Selim, but that was fine. In fact, it was probably a good thing.

“What, you still don’t trust me?” Selim mumbled as he steadied the remains of the building.

_ That’s not it, _ Haruhi said.  _ This might be a little selfish, but… I’m glad they’re explaining things. I wouldn’t know where to start. I can stand up for you later, now that he knows you’re here. _

“And you think they’ll listen to you, after what I did?”

_ I’m sure of it. _

With a shrug, Selim got back to working. Despite his doubts, Haruhi could tell she was comforted by her confidence. They both settled into a semi-comfortable silence as Selim worked. He was clearly thinking hard about what had just happened, and Haruhi needed some time to process it as well.

“Haruhi… does everyone react to death the same way, in your experience?” he eventually asked.

_ … No, not really. Everyone has their own ways of grieving. _

“Then is it okay not to feel so strongly about it?”

That was a tough one. It was obviously a loaded question, considering what had happened to Wrath.  _ It’s not… wrong. There’s no right way to grieve. _

Finally done with the rubble, Selim sat down to fully focus on the conversation. “How are you so functional right now? Your friend is dead. I could feel how strongly it affected you, but you’re still able to talk so plainly. I didn’t feel anything when Bradley died, but I’m still… not as useful as I could be. Why is that?”

_ I’ve always been like this. Even after my mother died… It hurts, but I can’t just stop because of it, _ Haruhi answered.  _ I think… you’re still trying to figure things out. Of course you’re... distracted. _

Selim thought about it for a second before nodding. “Well, maybe I’ll try to follow your lead. You already reduced me to begging you to let me act. No use holding on to my pride when you’re concerned. I’m not going to bend to other people, though. Don’t think you’ve completely changed me.”

_ I wouldn’t dream of it, Selim. _

 

Honey stared down at the body. It was strange. Part of him knew that it had been Takashi. He was dead. But it didn’t look like him, which made it hard to accept. It was a stranger’s body, but it was Takashi that was dead. It didn’t make any sense.

Someone walked up from behind him, but he only noticed when they knelt down next to him. Kaoru put a hand on his shoulder. Honey flinched when his thumb brushed over a patch of stripped-off skin there. “Are you okay?”

Honey shook his head. Even if he could say anything, Kaoru wouldn’t be able to hear him. They stayed there, silently looking at the body. Eventually, Honey leaned against Kaoru. He was tired. That anger from before had burned out, leaving him feeling empty and lost.

“We should bury him soon. It’s not right to just leave him here like this.”

Honey nodded, closing his eyes. He was so tired…

 

Mustang watched closely as shadows shifted the rubble away from him, finally letting him climb out and take stock of the situation. It looked like the battle had ended without him. Bradley’s body lay against a wall, smiling. That soft expression was infuriating. He didn’t have any right to look so peaceful in death after what he had done.

Looking over at the others revealed, thankfully, that there hadn’t been any more casualties. There was just his own body, lying dead in the middle of the street. It was almost dizzying to look at, actually. Honey and one of the twins (Kaoru, probably, judging by the fact he clearly wasn’t reacting to any sound around him) were kneeling there beside him.

“Colonel. I’m sorry, I couldn’t- I tried to keep him safe until you returned but…”

Mustang turned, relaxing a little at the sight of Hawkeye, despite the situation. “You did the best you could, Lieutenant. Without you, I’m sure we all would have died.”

“Still…” Hawkeye sighed.

Before she could continue, she was interrupted by Kyoya’s approach. He had clearly written out something beforehand, and was indicating that Mustang should read it.

‘This may be a morbid question, but do you have any particular burial rites you wish to carry out? That is, after all, still your body, and you should have a say in the burial. While we can’t give Mori the burial he deserves, the others do wish to do as much as we can with what we have, which includes cremation. Is that acceptable to you?’

Shit. Burials. Mustang had been trying to forget about that detail. He handed the notebook back, trying to block out the smell of burning bodies. That was just a memory. Nothing was burning yet. “Yeah. Go ahead.” Funerals were for the living, anyway. However the Hosts wanted to grieve over their friend was good enough for him.

The burning smell seemed to grow as Mustang turned on his heel and headed for the closest alley for somewhere private to work through the latest flashback. He was aware of Hawkeye somewhere behind him, but he was fine with that. He leaned against the wall and pressed his unbroken hand against the cool surface.

“Colonel? Is this a flashback?” Hawkeye asked, carefully moving into his line of sight. The reason for her confusion was obvious. Mustang had worked through everything years ago. He hadn’t had a flashback for a while. Still, even though it was just a partial one, there was no denying what it was.

He looked up at Hawkeye, noting how different she was from back then. All the details, from the obvious to the subtle, helped ground him in the present. “It was just… the idea of burning bodies… reminded me of the War. I guess I’m going to have to deal with this all over again now.” That was more than a little frustrating.

“Wait, you think this is because of the body swap?” Hawkeye asked.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Fullmetal, it’s that teenagers are the most over-emotional beings on the planet.” Mustang gestured at himself with a scowl. “And now I am one, physically speaking, with the memories of what I did back then. Of course I’m freaking out.”

Hawkeye nodded in understanding. “Then we should move before they start that cremation. That’ll only make things worse for you.”

“Good idea. Let’s go find somewhere to take a break,” Mustang said. “And while we’re at it, my arm definitely broke in the cave-in, we should get a splint started.”

 

The funeral was hardly a funeral at all, really. Most of the proper ceremonies were impossible with what they had. Kyoya and the other hosts had done their best, but in the end all they had the resources for was a funeral pyre. At least they had managed to find a suitable urn in a nearby store. The place had clearly been abandoned, so no-one felt too bad about taking the urn. It was the best they could do for him.

Everyone was quiet after the funeral, not sure what to do next. Kyoya flipped through his notebook, trying to find something in his research that could help them find their way home. Unfortunately he couldn’t think of anything except the transmutation that had gotten them there in the first place, and even that was uncertain. So how could they-?

“I think it’s time for us to go home.”

Kyoya looked up sharply, seeing Haruhi talking to Tamaki. At least, it looked like Haruhi. There was every chance that it could be Pride, though. With that in mind, Kyoya got up to stand next to Tamaki, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.

“But… I do need to get back to  _ myself _ first,” Tamaki said, glancing over to Edward for a moment.

Haruhi paused for a second, looking to the side and clearly talking to Pride. Or maybe it was the other way around. Kyoya couldn’t tell who was the dominant one at that moment. Eventually, she looked back at Tamaki and said, “We should be able to do both at once, I think. If we can get this right…”

Kyoya nudged Tamaki, showing him a small note saying, ‘Do not trust Pride.’

Tamaki thought it over for a few moments, staring into Haruhi’s eyes. Eventually, he looked back to Kyoya. “I trust Haruhi. If she thinks this will work, then I want to try it.”

Kyoya sighed, but still nodded. He supposed there wasn’t much else to be done. All that was left was to convince the others of what they were about to do and say goodbye to Edward and Mustang.

 

_ The Truth of the matter is, what they want is possible. I’ve seen something interesting, so there should be no problem with putting everyone back where they belong. Though it’s a little presumptuous to believe that I’ll just do as they wish. Perhaps a bit of a price for their pride is in order. _

_ “That’s enough.” _

_ The voice is startling, and the fact that I have been surprised at all is even more so. I am supposed to know all, so a shock is unexpected. I turn to Alphonse’s body, curious about what it has to say. _

_ “You’ve hurt them enough. Pride is paying their toll with the souls he got from Bradley. So let them go home, back where they should be,” the body says. _

_ I laugh at it’s arrogance. The thing has been interesting enough conversation, but it has never tried to intervene before. “And what does a husk like you know of what a soul is worth?” I ask it. “Perhaps I don’t think the souls paid are enough to put everything back.” _

_ The body shrugs. “People say you only know the value of something once you’ve lost it. My precious soul has left me twice now. I think that makes me more than qualified, don’t you?” _

_ There’s something different about the body. It’s still as frail as ever, physically, but on a different level it seems stronger. I make a note to keep an eye on this new, interesting development. In the meantime, though, I don’t want to push the body too far. Instead, I decide to take it’s ‘advice’. _

_ “Well, if that’s what you think, I can give them a little leeway this time.” _

 

Edward woke up with a gasp, looking around. He was still in East City, but he couldn’t see the Hosts anywhere. Did that mean it worked? He sat up, feeling the familiar weight of his automail limbs.

“Finally,” he sighed, relaxing a little. Things were starting to go back to normal, it seemed. Well, other than the Colonel still being in the wrong body. But… he would just have to get used to that. There was nothing they could do to fix it at that point.

Edward got up slowly, feeling the aches from his body’s mistreatment of the last few days. Looking around, he found something pretty unexpected, and greatly infuriating.

“Hoenheim?!” he snapped, marching toward him. He was sitting there next to Al as if nothing was wrong, holding a glass flask that was filled with shadows. Part of Edward registered that as Pride, but he was mostly focused on Hoenheim’s sudden appearance. “Where the hell have you been this whole time?!”

Hoenheim looked shocked. “Edward, I’m glad you’re safe.”

“I’m fine.  _ Where have you been _ ?!” That bastard just disappeared as soon as everything fell apart, and then thought he could show up right when everything was fixed?!

“I’ve been trying to help where I can, and looking for you and your brother,” Hoenheim explained. “Alphonse was just telling me what happened, I’m sorry I was too late to help.”

“Yeah, well, we figured it out on our own, like everything else,” Edward snapped.

Hoenheim nodded. “I deserved that… But if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you before I go-”

For once, it was Al that interrupted. “Wait, you’re leaving again?” he asked. That tiny note of fragility in his voice just made Edward even more pissed at Hoenheim.

“Not this time,” Edward said. “Wherever you’re going, we’re coming with you.” Not that Edward cared where he went, but if Alphonse cared then they weren’t going to let him just  _ leave _ again.

“You’re going on a trip?” Mustang asked, walking up just as Edward finished speaking. He had just gotten back with the civilians that had hidden away when Bradley had appeared.

Winry was with them, and rushed over as soon as she saw them. “Where are you going now, Ed? You’re hurt, you should rest before you just run off again!”

Hoenhiem spoke up, cutting off anyone else’s protests. “ _ I _ am going to find where Father has hidden this time. He’s my mistake, and it’s my responsibility what he does next. He’s not in Amestris anymore, so it will be a while before I find him.”

“You’re not abandoning us again,” Edward insisted. “Besides, that bastard’s really pissed me off. I’m going to hunt him down whether you like it or not.”

“You’re leaving Amestris?” Winry asked. She looked disappointed for a moment before coming to a decision. “Then you’ll need a mechanic. Let me grab my tools.”

“It’s decided, then,” Mustang said, talking over both Edward and Hoenheim’s protests. “Good luck, you four. Take out ‘Father’ as soon as you can. Hawkeye and I will focus on what we can do to rebuild Amestris.”

In less than an hour, Edward, Alphonse, Winry, and Hoenheim were ready to set off, heading for Aerugo’s border. The hunt for Father was about to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've reached the end! Except it's not the end! From here, there are two fics, both in this series so you can find them easily! I've already posted the first chapter of the Ouran-centered sequel fic, and I'm still working on the Fullmetal side of it. They happen parallel to each other, so both should update relatively equally. Sometimes I might have more ideas for one than the other, though, and update that a little bit more. Since they're wildly different genres I will be writing them at different rates, and the Ouran one will likely see more updates because I'm better at hurt/comfort than road trips.


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